What do we still need? Aka The never ending story

[Woziak]

Some incredibly sensibly comments on this thread, but I think we really need to approach it from 3 fronts, The first being;

Players we must sell or move on within next 2 Windows

1. M Feillani - Transfer Fee 10M/ 160k wages reduced
2. M Rojo - Transfer Fee £15M / 120k wages reduced
3. Mateo Damian - Transfer Fee 10M / 80k wages reduced
4. Antonio Valencia - Free / 120k wages reduced
5. J Mata - Free / 170k wages reduced ( I love this guy but his legs are going for the PL)
6. A Sanchez - 50M / 450k wages reduced ( Arsenal saw the best of him)
7. P Jones - 20M / 80k wages reduced
( Never a CB, may have been an option at CDM but so many chances it's time to Go!)
8. A Pereira - 10M / 40k wages reduced
(United need A British Box to Box midfield enforcer)

The Second critical part of moving the club forward

The United Board must, by now have narrowed down their Director Of Football Appointment and first team Manager to three options in each category and they should appoint the New DOF within the next two months in order to prepare for the new manager, if Ole gets the job then that will be because the club have made the top 4 and a had decent run in one of the cups, however if Pochetino or Zidane are appointed, all three managers contrary to popular belief play in a very similar way so the new DOF should be looking to set up obvious deals early so we no longer suffer embarrassing time consuming transfer windows as we have in the past 3 summers and we stop panic buying players that do not suit the style or stature of the club. If the recent rumour coming out from the club is true and we are only looking to buy players under 28, that's not a bad start but we should never be 100% rigid with this as the club has signed great veterans like Zlatan or even Teddy Sheringham in the past.

The final part

By moving out the obvious players above and maybe some other fringe players who may go as well, we will be reducing the age of the squad, and creating a surplus of about £1.2M per week in wages and the club just maybe, might recoup £100M. Now before people go crazy saying it's really simple just buy Koulibaly (27) £110M/200k, C Eriksen (26) 100M/200k, S Bergwijn (21) 25M/75k , W Bissaka (21) 30M/70, G Bale (29) 70M/400k, L Cook (21) 25M/80k. That lot would be cost £350M+ -100M and £250M net spend plus 1M per week in wages which with departures we would have made space for, however the new DOF would still have to oversee contract renewals for D De Gea, M Rashford,P Pogba, A Martial and A Herrera and all these players would only stay if they receive a wage increase of probably £400/500k per week combined to the already over bloated wage bill of £300M per year.

My point we simply can not spend £250M in any window, maybe just maybe £200M if we recoup £100M and many older players like Ashley Young, loyal servant that he has been can not be paid £140k per week for another 2 or 3 years. The New Director of football is perhaps the single most important signing in the club's recent history and he will have to do an exceptional job to turn round such an unbalanced, underperforming squad, relative to he wages paid in the Premier League.
There is light at the end of the tunnel but the question and constant debates of which marquee players United sign this summer may only be half as important has who becomes United's First Director Of Football?

 

[Woziak]

As a minimum the club needs to get a class RB, CB, RW and a CM to rotate/improve Matic/Herrera and help Pogba. If we are not able to offload a number of players we will most likely sign two players improving our first 11 and the club will compete for third. If we are able to sell a number of the players on bad contracts/deadwood then we might see some major changes in the squad and the gap between us and Liverpool/City might not be as big as it is.

Personally i would sell/release a large part of our squad(Players on bad contracts and/or with abilities not suited to the way we play) while buying players that would improve our team and can still develope.

Sell/Release over the next two summer windows:
Summer 2019:
Fellaini - Let him go to China.
Darmian - £60k per week. Activate 1 year club option and sell this summer.
Pereira - Activate 1 year club option and sell this summer.
Valencia - £100k per week. Do not resign.
Mata - £140k per week. Do not resign.
Rojo - £80k per week. Sell. Injuries and jumping into tackles.
Ashley Young - £110k per week. Old, can't cross. Resign for 1 year on a much lower wage if possible and release on free summer 2020.

Players that should be sold if we are able to:
Lukaku - £200k per week. Not suited to high intensity, technical football.
Fred - £120k per week. Does not got the discipline/consistency to play as one of the two deep midfielders for us.
Smalling - £120k per week. His abilities on the ball is not good enough. People arguing that he was the best defender under LVG: Difference between playing short and safe passes with no pressure compared to how Lindelof and Jones are playing now.
Sanchez - £350k per week. Over the top, decisionmaking is still not good, lost his speed/accleration that made him dangerous. Horrible contract.
McTominay, TFM, Wilson etc can be sold/loaned out. No reason for them to only play for the reserves if they can get senior experience elsewhere or give us £££ for transfers.

Players in this summer:
RW - Suso £33m clause active this summer. Left footed, technical, creative. Can cover for Pogba in the middle if needed. Based on price and abilities this is a really good deal. Don't care if he played for Liverpool before.
RB - Meunier for £25m(rumored and contract ending 2020) seems sensible. Easy to sell him on for the same price if Dalot develops as we hope he will. Manchester United fan. Will improve our RB.
CM - Barrela rumored £45m. Similar intensity to Herrera, but more technical and looks like a better passer. Based on his perceived abilities he should be able to perform well in the same role as Herrea/Matic and provide cover for Pogba if needed.
CB - Dependent on who we are able to sell and what we get for them. If price was not a factor i would go for Koulibaly. If we have to pay £100m for him, then i would rather go for Di Ligt(rumored around £60m). Alderweired for £25m is a good price and a good option. I would also have signed Todibo(moves to Barcelona on a free this summer. ) as he will be one of the centrebacks in the world within the next 3 years.

Additional players that should be under consideration dependent on who we sell and how much we have available:
LB: Tierney. Attacking fullback and would have been really useful against a team parking the bus like Burnley did yesterday.
ST: Luka Jovic. Hijack his transfer to Eintracht F. Balanced "modern" striker similar to Lewandoski and would give us a different option up front compared to Rashford.
RW: Sancho. Class. Go for him next summer.
CM: Aouar. Class. Go for him next summer.

Great insightful post but you know as well as I do, United in all honesty will sign no one this window and probably only 3 or 4 players in the summer. The Key signing is the Director of Football, so Woodward can concentrate on what he's good at, sponsorship deals and not signing football players after being wined and dined by Football Agents? A top DOF will clear out the deadwood and starting buying great young prospects like the club used to!

 

[Hugh Jass]

We only need an attacker if an attacker goes. So if Lukaku goes, which i feel he could if he is not getting game time, then we can sign some one to replace him across the front three.

Need MFs. Andreas will not make it and Fellaini is going/gone.

Not convinced we need a CB unless we sell a few, which we might. Jones may go and rojo.

Is Dalot a good enough RB. I would have to see more of him before i make my judgement.

I think 3 or 4 players max this summer.

 

[Patrick08]

Great insightful post but you know as well as I do, United in all honesty will sign no one this window and probably only 3 or 4 players in the summer. The Key signing is the Director of Football, so Woodward can concentrate on what he's good at, sponsorship deals and not signing football players after being wined and dined by Football Agents? A top DOF will clear out the deadwood and starting buying great young prospects like the club used to!

The problem is our budget will not stretch past certain amount and always have limitations placed on us.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

Respectfully speaking, feck that... Jones has to be one of the very first out the door along with Rojo, Darmian and Valencia.

Jones is not ideal, but Smalling often does mistakes aswell... And Given Smallings contract, it would make more sense to keep Jones on a lower wage for 1/2 seasons as a 4th option compared to having Smalling on £120k as a 4th option. It is not that i find either of them good enough in the long run, but we need to strengthen other parts of the team and Jones is simply the cheaper option. Smalling might get us some £££ in return.

 

[Patrick08]

Jones is not ideal, but Smalling often does mistakes aswell... And Given Smallings contract, it would make more sense to keep Jones on a lower wage for 1/2 seasons as a 4th option compared to having Smalling on £120k as a 4th option. It is not that i find either of them good enough in the long run, but we need to strengthen other parts of the team and Jones is simply the cheaper option. Smalling might get us some £££ in return.

Nah mate. Dont care about the money. Jones has to go.

 

[Pughnichi]

Some incredibly sensibly comments on this thread, but I think we really need to approach it from 3 fronts, The first being;

Players we must sell or move on within next 2 Windows

1. M Feillani - Transfer Fee 10M/ 160k wages reduced
2. M Rojo - Transfer Fee £15M / 120k wages reduced
3. Mateo Damian - Transfer Fee 10M / 80k wages reduced
4. Antonio Valencia - Free / 120k wages reduced
5. J Mata - Free / 170k wages reduced ( I love this guy but his legs are going for the PL)
6. A Sanchez - 50M / 450k wages reduced ( Arsenal saw the best of him)
7. P Jones - 20M / 80k wages reduced
( Never a CB, may have been an option at CDM but so many chances it's time to Go!)
8. A Pereira - 10M / 40k wages reduced
(United need A British Box to Box midfield enforcer)

The Second critical part of moving the club forward

The United Board must, by now have narrowed down their Director Of Football Appointment and first team Manager to three options in each category and they should appoint the New DOF within the next two months in order to prepare for the new manager, if Ole gets the job then that will be because the club have made the top 4 and a had decent run in one of the cups, however if Pochetino or Zidane are appointed, all three managers contrary to popular belief play in a very similar way so the new DOF should be looking to set up obvious deals early so we no longer suffer embarrassing time consuming transfer windows as we have in the past 3 summers and we stop panic buying players that do not suit the style or stature of the club. If the recent rumour coming out from the club is true and we are only looking to buy players under 28, that's not a bad start but we should never be 100% rigid with this as the club has signed great veterans like Zlatan or even Teddy Sheringham in the past.

The final part

By moving out the obvious players above and maybe some other fringe players who may go as well, we will be reducing the age of the squad, and creating a surplus of about £1.2M per week in wages and the club just maybe, might recoup £100M. Now before people go crazy saying it's really simple just buy Koulibaly (27) £110M/200k, C Eriksen (26) 100M/200k, S Bergwijn (21) 25M/75k , W Bissaka (21) 30M/70, G Bale (29) 70M/400k, L Cook (21) 25M/80k. That lot would be cost £350M+ -100M and £250M net spend plus 1M per week in wages which with departures we would have made space for, however the new DOF would still have to oversee contract renewals for D De Gea, M Rashford,P Pogba, A Martial and A Herrera and all these players would only stay if they receive a wage increase of probably £400/500k per week combined to the already over bloated wage bill of £300M per year.

My point we simply can not spend £250M in any window, maybe just maybe £200M if we recoup £100M and many older players like Ashley Young, loyal servant that he has been can not be paid £140k per week for another 2 or 3 years. The New Director of football is perhaps the single most important signing in the club's recent history and he will have to do an exceptional job to turn round such an unbalanced, underperforming squad, relative to he wages paid in the Premier League.
There is light at the end of the tunnel but the question and constant debates of which marquee players United sign this summer may only be half as important has who becomes United's First Director Of Football?

I agree entirely with the players you suggest should leave. I somewhat disagree with the values you believe we would get. Pereira's contract expires for starters.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

Great insightful post but you know as well as I do, United in all honesty will sign no one this window and probably only 3 or 4 players in the summer. The Key signing is the Director of Football, so Woodward can concentrate on what he's good at, sponsorship deals and not signing football players after being wined and dined by Football Agents? A top DOF will clear out the deadwood and starting buying great young prospects like the club used to!

I do actually have a minuscule hope that we might sign Barella today. Reported that a £33m bid was rejected earlier this month. With Fellaini leaving for around £10m this could open the path for a higher bid for Barella. Outside of this we will not sign anyone.

DoF rumors only appears when the heat and critisism is on Woodward/the board. Previously been used as a tacitic to appease the fans, and it would not suprise me if this is the case yet again. Typical short term thinking in management: "Promise" improvement/changes in the future to angry customers/employees. Hope that they forget it. Rinse and repeat.

We could buy more than 3/4 players, but not if we spend £100m on Koulibaly. In the time that it would take us to improve the rest of the team, if we are only buying Galacticos for a huge amount of £££, Koulibaly would be over the top.

RB: Meunier - £25m max given his contract runs out in 2020.
LB: Tierney - £30m would be acceptable for Celtic.
CB: Alderweireld - £25m.
CM: Barella - £40m.
RW: Suso - £33m clause.

£153m. Around the expected amount we should use this summer. And if we are able to sell some players for some £££ we could spend even more.

 

[Fosu-Mens]

Nah mate. Dont care about the money. Jones has to go.

Are you Moyseh? Did he f your daughter as well?

 

[Hammer_st]

Can't believe, that we didnt go all in for DeJong £66m (€75m) and now maybe we pay £40-45m for Barella.

 

[SparkedIntoLife]

I do actually have a minuscule hope that we might sign Barella today. Reported that a £33m bid was rejected earlier this month. With Fellaini leaving for around £10m this could open the path for a higher bid for Barella. Outside of this we will not sign anyone.

DoF rumors only appears when the heat and critisism is on Woodward/the board. Previously been used as a tacitic to appease the fans, and it would not suprise me if this is the case yet again. Typical short term thinking in management: "Promise" improvement/changes in the future to angry customers/employees. Hope that they forget it. Rinse and repeat.

We could buy more than 3/4 players, but not if we spend £100m on Koulibaly. In the time that it would take us to improve the rest of the team, if we are only buying Galacticos for a huge amount of £££, Koulibaly would be over the top.

RB: Meunier - £25m max given his contract runs out in 2020.
LB: Tierney - £30m would be acceptable for Celtic.
CB: Alderweireld - £25m.
CM: Barella - £40m.
RW: Suso - £33m clause.

£153m. Around the expected amount we should use this summer. And if we are able to sell some players for some £££ we could spend even more.

I pretty much agree with all of this. I'd also add Sandro Tonali from Brescia for £30m approximately as Solskjaer doesn't seem to trust any of our non starting options in centre midfield. I can see both Pereira and Fred leaving.

These are more sensible than epic; the sort of signings Juventus would make and be heralded for good value. As much as I'd love to see Sancho and De Ligt, I think we need an overhaul this Summer and can't really afford to make lots of £80m+ signings. In fact, their clubs would both be more likely to sell them in Summer 2020 rather than this one (especially with Ajax not doing too badly financially and having just lost De Jong).

I would also probably let Young, Jones and Mata's contracts expire. I like them (Jones less so) but they are on huge wages for players that aren't good enough to be in our first 11. Time to freshen up. I'd include some of the youngsters in the squad next season for depth but consider loaning them out the next season.

SQUAD 2019/2020 (starters listed first) -

GK: De Gea, Romero, Grant
RB: Meunier, Dalot, Laird
LB: Tierney, Shaw
CD: Alderweireld, Lindelöf, Smalling, Bailly, O'Connor
CMR: Barella, Herrera, Garner
CML: Matic, Tonali, McTominay
CM/AM: Pogba, Gomes
RW/AM: Suso, Lingard, Chong
LW: Martial, Sanchez
ST: Rashford, Lukaku, Greenwood

IN - Meunier (25m), Tierney (35m), Alderweireld (25m), Barella (40m), Tonali (30m), Suso (33m) = 188m supplemented by sales of Fred, Fellaini, Darmian etc and wages reduction through releases of Jones, Mata, Young, Pereira

SQUAD 2020/2021 -

GK: De Gea, Henderson, Pereira
RB: Dalot, Meunier
LB: Tierney, Shaw
CD: De Ligt, Alderweireld, Lindelöf, Smalling, Tuanzebe
CMR: Barella, Herrera
CML: Tonali, Matic, McTominay
CM/AM: Pogba, Lingard
RW/AM: Sancho, Suso
LW: Martial, Chong (I know he's a RW but can play left also and the front 3 would be flexible)
ST: Rashford, Lukaku

IN - De Ligt (90m), Sancho (110m) = 200m supplemented by sales of Bailly and Sanchez

 

[KingMinger22]

We must sign Sancho.

Throwing everything at making it happen and I think it will.

 

[Jericholyte2]

I’m pulling numbers out of thin air here but I don’t think any are particularly unreasonable.

Outs:

Darmian - Contract Expire
Mata - Contract Expire
Pereira - 15m (Jordan Ibe to compare) or part of a trade
Valencia - Contract Expire
Jones - Contract Expire
Rojo - 15m
McTominey - Loan

Total: 30m

Promotions:

Tuanzebe
Gomes
Chong

Contract Renewals:

Young - 1yr - great mentality and attitude
Herrera - 2yrs with additional 1yr
De Gea - for life!

In:

Wan-Bissaka - 40m (or use Pereira to reduce fee)
Skriniar / Koulibaly / De Ligt - 80m plus
Sancho - 80m plus
Ruben Neves - 50m

Total: 250m

Squad:

GK: De Gea / Romero / Grant

RB: Bissaka / Dalot / Yound
CB: Lindelof / Smalling / Tuanzebe
CB: New CB / Bailly / Tuanzebe
LB: Shaw / Young / Dalot

DM: Matic / Neves (no one set DM, have both rotating equally with view to Neves being No. 1 for 20/21 season)
CM: Herrera / Fred (can’t right off after one season with the instability we’ve had)
AM: Pogba / Gomes

RW: Sancho / Lingard / Chong
LW: Martial / Sanchez / Rashford

ST: Rashford / Lukaku / Sanchez

With the market as it is I don’t believe a net spend of 200m is excessive for what we're wanting to do. Unfortunately clubs know who we want rid of so we'll get shafted as always and when we buy we need to pay top dollar.

 

[Canagel]

CB: Koulibaly - the only one.
RB: Ricardo/Bissaka/Meunier
DM:Aouar/Neves/Ndidi
RW: Sancho/Pepe/Lozano/Dembele

We must choose from these.

 

[Hugh Jass]

I’m pulling numbers out of thin air here but I don’t think any are particularly unreasonable.

Outs:

Darmian - Contract Expire
Mata - Contract Expire
Pereira - 15m (Jordan I’ve to compare) or part of a trade
Valencia - Contract Expire
Jones - Contract Expire
Rojo - 15m
McTominey - Loan

Total: 30m

Promotions:

Tuanzebe
Gomes
Chong

Contract Renewals:

Young - 1yr - great mentality and attitude
Herrera - 2yrs with additional 1yr
De Gea - for life!

In:

Wan-Bissaka - 40m (or use Pereira to reduce fee)
Skriniar / Koulibaly / De Ligt - 80m plus
Sancho - 80m plus
Ruben Neves - 50m

Total: 250m

Squad:

GK: De Gea / Romero / Grant

RB: Bissaka / Dalot / Yound
CB: Lindelof / Smalling / Tuanzebe
CB: New CB / Bailly / Tuanzebe
LB: Shaw / Young / Dalot

DM: Matic / Neves (no one set DM, have both rotating equally with view to Neves being No. 1 for 20/21 season)
CM: Herrera / Fred (can’t right off after one season with the instability we’ve had)
AM: Pogba / Gomes

RW: Sancho / Lingard / Chong
LW: Martial / Sanchez / Rashford

ST: Rashford / Lukaku / Sanchez

With the market as it is I don’t believe a net spend of 200m is excessive for what we're wanting to do. Unfortunately clubs know who we want rid of so we'll get shafted as always and when we buy we need to pay top dollar.

I would agree with this. I however just dont think we will spend 80 million on a defender.

 

[Silas]

CB: Koulibaly - the only one.
RB: Ricardo/Bissaka/Meunier
DM:Aouar/Neves/Ndidi
RW: Sancho/Pepe/Dembele

We must choose from these.

When did Aouar become a DM?

 

[Jericholyte2]

I would agree with this. I however just dont think we will spend 80 million on a defender.

Whilst I personally don’t want us paying this much, it appears to be the going rate for PL clubs for a top drawer CB, which all selling clubs know we'll be desperate for.

 

[Stacks]

Some incredibly sensibly comments on this thread, but I think we really need to approach it from 3 fronts, The first being;

Players we must sell or move on within next 2 Windows

1. M Feillani - Transfer Fee 10M/ 160k wages reduced
2. M Rojo - Transfer Fee £15M / 120k wages reduced
3. Mateo Damian - Transfer Fee 10M / 80k wages reduced
4. Antonio Valencia - Free / 120k wages reduced
5. J Mata - Free / 170k wages reduced ( I love this guy but his legs are going for the PL)
6. A Sanchez - 50M / 450k wages reduced ( Arsenal saw the best of him)
7. P Jones - 20M / 80k wages reduced
( Never a CB, may have been an option at CDM but so many chances it's time to Go!)
8. A Pereira - 10M / 40k wages reduced
(United need A British Box to Box midfield enforcer)

The Second critical part of moving the club forward

The United Board must, by now have narrowed down their Director Of Football Appointment and first team Manager to three options in each category and they should appoint the New DOF within the next two months in order to prepare for the new manager, if Ole gets the job then that will be because the club have made the top 4 and a had decent run in one of the cups, however if Pochetino or Zidane are appointed, all three managers contrary to popular belief play in a very similar way so the new DOF should be looking to set up obvious deals early so we no longer suffer embarrassing time consuming transfer windows as we have in the past 3 summers and we stop panic buying players that do not suit the style or stature of the club. If the recent rumour coming out from the club is true and we are only looking to buy players under 28, that's not a bad start but we should never be 100% rigid with this as the club has signed great veterans like Zlatan or even Teddy Sheringham in the past.

The final part

By moving out the obvious players above and maybe some other fringe players who may go as well, we will be reducing the age of the squad, and creating a surplus of about £1.2M per week in wages and the club just maybe, might recoup £100M. Now before people go crazy saying it's really simple just buy Koulibaly (27) £110M/200k, C Eriksen (26) 100M/200k, S Bergwijn (21) 25M/75k , W Bissaka (21) 30M/70, G Bale (29) 70M/400k, L Cook (21) 25M/80k. That lot would be cost £350M+ -100M and £250M net spend plus 1M per week in wages which with departures we would have made space for, however the new DOF would still have to oversee contract renewals for D De Gea, M Rashford,P Pogba, A Martial and A Herrera and all these players would only stay if they receive a wage increase of probably £400/500k per week combined to the already over bloated wage bill of £300M per year.

My point we simply can not spend £250M in any window, maybe just maybe £200M if we recoup £100M and many older players like Ashley Young, loyal servant that he has been can not be paid £140k per week for another 2 or 3 years. The New Director of football is perhaps the single most important signing in the club's recent history and he will have to do an exceptional job to turn round such an unbalanced, underperforming squad, relative to he wages paid in the Premier League.
There is light at the end of the tunnel but the question and constant debates of which marquee players United sign this summer may only be half as important has who becomes United's First Director Of Football?

Gareth Bale???

 

[Canagel]

When did Aouar become a DM?

He played as the deepest mid in double pivot.

 

[Silas]

He played as the deepest mid in double pivot.

Interesting. I haven't seen much of Lyon this season, so I had no idea he had dropped deeper. Has he played there for the majority of the season? Either way, I wouldn't mind him here at all, whether he plays alongside Pogba or behind him.

 

[Sereques]

Right back, Central defender, Matic replacement.

 

[Patrick08]

CB: Koulibaly - the only one.
RB: Ricardo/Bissaka/Meunier
DM:Aouar/Neves/Ndidi
RW: Sancho/Pepe/Dembele

We must choose from these.

We might not have this amount of cash available to land these players in one window.

 

[buckooo1978]

We might not have this amount of cash available to land these players in one window.

agree you are talking 300 million there potentially plus I think we need a left back. Would we see this level of investment by the Glazers in a window? I doubt it

I think if we were to make these kind of purchases you are talking about the kind of sales mentioned above by @Woziak. I don't expect Lukaku to be in a United shirt either after 19/20 season.

a lot depends on the progression of the likes of Tuanzebe, Garner, Laird, Chong, Gomez and Greenwood as I think, under a new youth focused United we might see some of those guys promoted in the next 18 months alongside a couple of big signings

 

[Kweku Amonoo]

We only need about 4 new signings to be really elite. Tuanzebe, Gomes, Greenwood and Chong should be in the first team set up.

Then we'll need to sign Sancho for the RW. The boy's the real deal. Bring in Koulibaly at CB. Sign a new LB. Shaw is pretty dire going forward. I'd suggest Alex Telles.

Then we need a DM who can pass the ball, I'd love to see us go for Weigl/Paredes. Why we didn't go for Fabinho I'll never understand.

 

[Sparky Rhiwabon]

Why didn’t we try to strengthen from a position of growing strength in the January window with one or two quality signings? E.g. centre back. Look at how Chelsea have improved their weak point with the signing of Higuain. Maybe a sign that OGS is not the long term plan?

 

[Fosu-Mens]

Why didn’t we try to strengthen from a position of growing strength in the January window with one or two quality signings? E.g. centre back. Look at how Chelsea have improved their weak point with the signing of Higuain. Maybe a sign that OGS is not the long term plan?

If they(Woodward) signed anyone now and that player turned out like Sanchez then he would get even sh*t from the fans/media. Safer to wait until summer and get a DoF(should have been here already if the DoF were to have time to preperare and make changes) to handle the business. Either we will not appoint a DoF or he will be appointed to late.

 

[Johan07]

Some incredibly sensibly comments on this thread, but I think we really need to approach it from 3 fronts, The first being;

Players we must sell or move on within next 2 Windows

1. M Feillani - Transfer Fee 10M/ 160k wages reduced
2. M Rojo - Transfer Fee £15M / 120k wages reduced
3. Mateo Damian - Transfer Fee 10M / 80k wages reduced
4. Antonio Valencia - Free / 120k wages reduced
5. J Mata - Free / 170k wages reduced ( I love this guy but his legs are going for the PL)
6. A Sanchez - 50M / 450k wages reduced ( Arsenal saw the best of him)
7. P Jones - 20M / 80k wages reduced
( Never a CB, may have been an option at CDM but so many chances it's time to Go!)
8. A Pereira - 10M / 40k wages reduced
(United need A British Box to Box midfield enforcer)

The Second critical part of moving the club forward

The United Board must, by now have narrowed down their Director Of Football Appointment and first team Manager to three options in each category and they should appoint the New DOF within the next two months in order to prepare for the new manager, if Ole gets the job then that will be because the club have made the top 4 and a had decent run in one of the cups, however if Pochetino or Zidane are appointed, all three managers contrary to popular belief play in a very similar way so the new DOF should be looking to set up obvious deals early so we no longer suffer embarrassing time consuming transfer windows as we have in the past 3 summers and we stop panic buying players that do not suit the style or stature of the club. If the recent rumour coming out from the club is true and we are only looking to buy players under 28, that's not a bad start but we should never be 100% rigid with this as the club has signed great veterans like Zlatan or even Teddy Sheringham in the past.

The final part

By moving out the obvious players above and maybe some other fringe players who may go as well, we will be reducing the age of the squad, and creating a surplus of about £1.2M per week in wages and the club just maybe, might recoup £100M. Now before people go crazy saying it's really simple just buy Koulibaly (27) £110M/200k, C Eriksen (26) 100M/200k, S Bergwijn (21) 25M/75k , W Bissaka (21) 30M/70, G Bale (29) 70M/400k, L Cook (21) 25M/80k. That lot would be cost £350M+ -100M and £250M net spend plus 1M per week in wages which with departures we would have made space for, however the new DOF would still have to oversee contract renewals for D De Gea, M Rashford,P Pogba, A Martial and A Herrera and all these players would only stay if they receive a wage increase of probably £400/500k per week combined to the already over bloated wage bill of £300M per year.

My point we simply can not spend £250M in any window, maybe just maybe £200M if we recoup £100M and many older players like Ashley Young, loyal servant that he has been can not be paid £140k per week for another 2 or 3 years. The New Director of football is perhaps the single most important signing in the club's recent history and he will have to do an exceptional job to turn round such an unbalanced, underperforming squad, relative to he wages paid in the Premier League.
There is light at the end of the tunnel but the question and constant debates of which marquee players United sign this summer may only be half as important has who becomes United's First Director Of Football?

Ambitious post but where did you get those wages from? The Daily Express?
Jones and Darmian are on 50k per week. Rojo on 80k. Sanchez base wage is not more than 350k.
When you overexaggerate stuff like this it does not help your arguments.

 

[laughtersassassin]

If they(Woodward) signed anyone now and that player turned out like Sanchez then he would get even sh*t from the fans/media. Safer to wait until summer and get a DoF(should have been here already if the DoF were to have time to preperare and make changes) to handle the business. Either we will not appoint a DoF or he will be appointed to late.

Convenient excuse till it potentially costs us top 4.

 

[RedSky]

@Woziak

Wages are below:

1. M Feillani - 100k wage
2. M Rojo - 80k wage
3. Mateo Damian - 60k wage
4. Antonio Valencia - 100k wage
5. J Mata - 140k wage
6. A Sanchez - 350k wage
7. P Jones - 50k wage
8. A Pereira - 30k wage

 

[Johan07]

We might not have this amount of cash available to land these players in one window.

I absolutely think we do. Those are young players all of them and would be reasonable investments and not depreciate in value; maybe even increase instead.
There is no evidence whatsoever that the club is not prepared to invest money in young talented players. Its more about they actually wanting to join and us staying within our wage bill. The size of the transfer fees are not that relevant.
This narrative of us not being able to pay transfer fees or having a transfer "budget" each summer is a misconstrued notion. Even if we would buy players for 300m this summer we would not have to cash out 300m this summer. Transfer fees are amortized over the term of the contract and offset against transfer fees in as well.
If you are not PSG and Barcelona demands to get the release clause paid upfront for Neymar. But that is not the normal.
Otherwise we would pay for a 100m Koulibaly for example: 25m per year over four years. Or something similar.

 

[Dante]

Thread title should be renamed: 'If this were a game of Football Manager, here's what I would do'.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

He played as the deepest mid in double pivot.

Wouldn’t say he is a DM, normally Tousart or Ndombele have the more defensive role depending on who plays and Lyon play a lot of 3 at the back so they don’t have to be as disciplined and Auror pushes quite far forward and joins in the attack but really it depends what Fekir is doing or if he is playing.

He isn’t a deep lying play maker he would be another one that would play in Herreras position but without the defensive contribution of say Herrera or just that mindset to get in and about people.

Would still take him mind but if we were to get him it wouldn’t be to replace Matic, not in my opinion anyway.

 

[King Andow]

LB - Tierney
RB - Meunier
CB - Koulibaly or Skriniar
CDM - Sandro Tonali
LCM - Neves
RCM - Allan
RW's - Sancho and Chiesa
LW - Thorgan Hazard
ST - Ben Yedder/Kramarić/Sébastien Haller

All we need.
Get rid bit by bit of Valencia, Darmian, Young, Jones, Rojo, McTominay, Pereira, Mata, Sánchez and Lukaku. Then we can go and try to sell Smalling, Matic and Lingard as we could do better.

 

[Woodzy]

LB - Tierney
RB - Meunier
CB - Koulibaly or Skriniar
CDM - Sandro Tonali
LCM - Neves
RCM - Allan
RW's - Sancho and Chiesa
LW - Bergwijn
ST - Ben Yedder or Kramarić

All we need.
Get rid bit by bit of Valencia, Darmian, Young, Jones, Rojo, McTominay, Pereira, Mata, Sánchez and Lukaku. Then we can go and try to sell Smalling, Matic and Lingard as we could do better.

Not much then?

 

[AndyJ1985]

Two full backs
Right winger
Two defenders
Striker
Midfielder

 

[el3mel]

Two full backs
Right winger
Two defenders
Striker
Midfielder

I'll say 2 midfielders as well.

Too much work need to be done. We have about 11-15 players good for United. The rest are meh.

 

[Sandikan]

A dominant in the air top quality centre back the absolute must.

When you don't have your two main centre backs on the oppositions main heading threat, I think that says it all.

A lot of the posts above are utter nonsense. We can't have mass clearouts every single year, and we won't be making 5-6 signings (or more) in one summer.

So a centre back, right back (if we decide Dalot won't be good enough quickly), and some sort of better right sided option attacking wise

 

[Jacko21]

What we can realistically expect...

A right back. A centre back. A midfielder.

Think we'll only sign an attacker if someone else makes way.

 

[Dan_F]

Apart from the players expiring, there’s no way the rest of those wages are coming off our wage bill. Fellaini’s probably has been seen as he’s gone to China, but I can’t see anyone covering Rojo, Jones or Darmian’s wages in full.

If we do sign a right back then there’s no point in keeping Young, as he will just take games away from Dalot. Hopefully we can see a bit more of Gomes before the end of the season, but he might need a loan first.

 

[MikeUpNorth]

CB
RB
CM
RW