The Summer 2019 Rebuild

Fosu-Mens

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We can currently field a starting 11 that would fight for top 4 if eveyone is fit. With injuries on certain players we will struggle.
Our goal for the summer should be to improve our starting 11 to the degree that we are likely to get top 4 with some margin and improve the squad depth to make it more resilient regarding injuries on important players. Not going to evaluate GK position as this is the only please we are better than our competition.

Current players that are going to leave and/or must leave:
Valencia: Free.
Rojo: Whatever we can get.
Darmian: Whatever we can get.
Mata: Free.
Sanchez: Hopefully we do not have to pay.

Players that should be considering sold:
Fred: Cannot see him making it.
Pereira: He would benefit playing in a different league.
Bailly or Jones: Injuries and inconsistency.
Lukaku: If we can get big money for him and we have a suitable target (Sancho), then we should do this.


Options:
FB: Meunier or Lala, both in their prime. Would cost around £20m.
CB: de Ligt (if not going to Barcelona then he must be a priority) £75m, or Koulibaly for £75m+ or Alderweireld for £25m.
Midfield: Rabiot (if OGS thinks he can be handled) as our next holding CDM(his best position and where he is really good) and Pellegrini(as a versatile B2B for Herrera/Pogba) £22m clause.
Attackers: Suso £33m or Sarabia £15m. Both creators, both left footed, both able to play as a RW, CAM and LW. Suso would be a starter on the right, and Sarabia would be a low risk transfer that would improve the squad.

Would cost around £140m of we go for the 5 players in bold.

Team would look something like this(likely starters):
GK: DDG, Romero, Grant
FB: Meunier, Shaw, Dalot, Young
CB: de Ligt, Lindelof, Smalling, Jones, Tuanzebe. (Bailly)
Midfield: Pogba, Herrera, Matic, Rabiot, Pellegrini, McTominay. (Fred, Pereira)
Attack: Rashford, Martial, Suso, Lingard, Lukaku, Greenwood.
With this team we should get be a little closer to City/Liverpool and be relatively safe considering a top 4. Squad is also relatively resilient regarding injuries. And with additional transfers/improvement the next season we should on paper be able to fight for something major.
 

KingMinger22

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I think we are miles off the best teams in Europe including Liverpool and miles and miles from City.

With that in mind, I think we should focus on signing younger players with the hope of building something for the medium term. A focus on domestic talent seems wise too.

Sancho
Rice
Ben-Wissaka
Dear Ligt
A Midfielder

That would probably only cost around £400m or so.
 

Gordon S

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Not sure this is the right thread but thought this could be an interesting watch. Don't know how accurate it is but it probably isn't too far off.
 

wolvored

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Not sure this is the right thread but thought this could be an interesting watch. Don't know how accurate it is but it probably isn't too far off.
3 highest spending teams win the most premierships.
 

tomaldinho1

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the mirror have put together a possible dream 11 for United including the likes of Maguire, Koulibaly, Coutinho and Sancho.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/man-utd-dream-line-up-14172370.amp

cant stress how much of a disaster signings maguire and coutinho would be.
Couldn't agree more - one is an average to good CB and the other would find himself competing with Pogba for his ideal spot and will then be shoehorned onto the wings, where he'd slowly become Juan Mata II and end his career being better known for hugs and nice blogs than his football.
 

deadrevelz

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Out: Fellaini, Valencia, Darmian, Rojo, Pereira, Mata, Sanchez, Fosu-Mensah

In: CB, RW, DM, CM

Promote: Greenwood, Gomes, Tuanzebe

This would be a great summer. I think we can do without a RB by playing Smalling there if Dalot isn't trusted against the top sides. I'm hopeful Fred can show his class next season so a destroyer type DM would be my preference with a ball playing CM with passing range and ability to dictate tempo. Sancho on the right wing and Koulibaly or Varane at CB.
My only concern is the LW. Martial and Rashford don't excel there so if we play 4-3-3 it might be an issue. Shaw stepping up offensively would help a lot - if he can play more one twos with Martial and Pogba and get crosses in he will rack up the assists.
 

Mylock

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Five players in - Koulbably (must have), experienced RB (TBC), right winger (do we go for experience or potential stars like sancho?) jovic (potential WC striker, need to snap him up ahead of other big clubs), new midfielder ( is it time to replace matic? will Herrera leave? is Mata finished? is Fred & Perrera good enough? will pogba leave?).
 
Last edited:

Igor Drefljak

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I don't know if this is the 'right' place to put this but anyway....

The club needs to look at itself. The only section of the club that seems to work efficiently is the ability to bring in more sponsors.

Contracts and general wage bill:
We don't seem to effectively keep players under contracts. Martial had us bent over the table considering he was in the last year of his contract. De Gea can effectively do the same. Herrera seemingly has the choice to get rich at PSG or stay with us, but again, holds the upper hand now. We let players contracts run down too quickly and end up over paying to keep them here.
On top of this, our wage bill is one of the highest, yet our team lacks in so many areas. It's underwhelming to think what we play some players, and what they offer on the pitch, especially when you compare to other teams.
Sanchez wages for example, seems to have put a real strain on negotiations with other players.

Lack of vision for the team:
This is where I mention the myth which is a DoF.
Since Fergie has left, we've had 4 managers, all with different styles, bringing in their own players, players that don't fit the next managers plans. We really need to find an identity and work towards it. Why we haven't got a clear football brain at the club is quite sad. I just don't know how Woodward can justify putting himself in charge of the dealings, looking at the squad and thinking 'I'm doing alright here'

Signings:
This sort of links to the post above, but again, since Fergie has left, our signings have been absolutely shocking. Now it's hard to put the finger on it, but most of the players we have bought, were considered good signings, by us, the ones who complain about who we've bought. Depay having a higher ceiling than Sterling, to Darmian being the best RB on Serie A etc
Hindsight is a wonderful thing of course, but why have our signings mostly failed? Something must be wrong, whether it's a lack of scouting, wrong tactics for the players etc, but:
Positive: Shaw, Martial, Romero, Lindelof, Dalot (Although he needs time, he looks like he'll be a good player)
Sold: Fellaini, Di Maria, Blind, Schneiderlin, Bastian, Mhki
Need moving on: Rojo, Darmian, Bailly, Matic, Sanchez
Unsure: Mata (Leaving on a free), Herrera (Leaving on a free), Pogba (Does he want to leave? if not, then positive), Lukakau (Does he fit Ole's plans, is he technically good enough) Fred (Maybe early to say, but this season has done nothing to justify him being here)

Obviously, these are my opinions, but going off the general opinion of this forum, I'd say it's an accurate observation
Because our signings are so bad, we're left giving the likes of Jones, Young etc new contracts. These players, as of now, shouldn't be on the books, but we have to keep them, because the players we've bought to replace them have been just as bad, if not worse.
6 years on from our last title, we've spent a lot of money, paid a lot of wages and are a lot worse off for it.

Players who don't want to be here:
It's all paper talk, so this could be me moaning for the sake of it.
If Pogba wants to leave, get rid. As much as I want us to build our team around him, honestly, sometimes you question the effort he puts on the pitch. You watch the likes of Liverpool etc and as a team, they put effort in, every one of them. We have this potential world class midfielder, who is world class, when he wants to be. I'm sick of his attitude on the pitch some times. If we can get a big figure for him, I think we should sell and move on. If he wants to be here, then I want him to be here, but he needs to show it on the pitch week in, week out.
As for De Gea, he's coming to the last year of his contract. If he doesn't want to sign, lets move him on. I don't want to see him go, but I'd rather get something than nothing for him. If it means making a deal with Real and Courtois, lets do it. The only other place I can see him go, is PSG, so his options are limited, unless he runs his contract down.
Going back to contracts. He's worth a big contract, but it gets to a point were enough is enough, we can't just bend over to everyone demands. He's already the best paid keeper in the world.

The squad:
I look at our team and just wonder how it's got so bad. I know we finished second last year, but it wasn't a title challenge. This year we're so far off again, but player for player, I'd happily see so many replaced.
Rojo, Bailly, Jones, Valencia, Young, Darmian, Fred, Andreas, Matic, Mata, Lukaku and Sanchez. On top of this, we've got an issue with Herrera and potential issues with Pogba and De Gea. Thats 12-15 players.

It's so disheartening to look at all the mediocre players in the side. I know we need squad players and all, but some of them don't deserve to be that, some of them are on wages that deserve to be key players, yet should be warming out bench. Theres just so much wrong with our squad in that regard.

The Fans:
This is a little off topic, but today I learned that Zebra finance has decided to not finance season tickets anymore. Clubs have sourced other companies. City from my understanding offer 0% finance from themselves, yet us, nope, just charge full price up front, or lose your ticket. I think the club has no rapport with the fans, and things like this are just little frustrating things that a club shouldn't be doing.

-----

Anyway, rant over :joy:
I just get so frustrated with how the club is going these days.
We're in a fight for top 4, currently 6th, with the highest wage bill in the league, millions of pounds spent, and progressively going backwards.
 

Mylock

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Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
658
I don't know if this is the 'right' place to put this but anyway....

The club needs to look at itself. The only section of the club that seems to work efficiently is the ability to bring in more sponsors.

Contracts and general wage bill:
We don't seem to effectively keep players under contracts. Martial had us bent over the table considering he was in the last year of his contract. De Gea can effectively do the same. Herrera seemingly has the choice to get rich at PSG or stay with us, but again, holds the upper hand now. We let players contracts run down too quickly and end up over paying to keep them here.
On top of this, our wage bill is one of the highest, yet our team lacks in so many areas. It's underwhelming to think what we play some players, and what they offer on the pitch, especially when you compare to other teams.
Sanchez wages for example, seems to have put a real strain on negotiations with other players.

Lack of vision for the team:
This is where I mention the myth which is a DoF.
Since Fergie has left, we've had 4 managers, all with different styles, bringing in their own players, players that don't fit the next managers plans. We really need to find an identity and work towards it. Why we haven't got a clear football brain at the club is quite sad. I just don't know how Woodward can justify putting himself in charge of the dealings, looking at the squad and thinking 'I'm doing alright here'

Signings:
This sort of links to the post above, but again, since Fergie has left, our signings have been absolutely shocking. Now it's hard to put the finger on it, but most of the players we have bought, were considered good signings, by us, the ones who complain about who we've bought. Depay having a higher ceiling than Sterling, to Darmian being the best RB on Serie A etc
Hindsight is a wonderful thing of course, but why have our signings mostly failed? Something must be wrong, whether it's a lack of scouting, wrong tactics for the players etc, but:
Positive: Shaw, Martial, Romero, Lindelof, Dalot (Although he needs time, he looks like he'll be a good player)
Sold: Fellaini, Di Maria, Blind, Schneiderlin, Bastian, Mhki
Need moving on: Rojo, Darmian, Bailly, Matic, Sanchez
Unsure: Mata (Leaving on a free), Herrera (Leaving on a free), Pogba (Does he want to leave? if not, then positive), Lukakau (Does he fit Ole's plans, is he technically good enough) Fred (Maybe early to say, but this season has done nothing to justify him being here)

Obviously, these are my opinions, but going off the general opinion of this forum, I'd say it's an accurate observation
Because our signings are so bad, we're left giving the likes of Jones, Young etc new contracts. These players, as of now, shouldn't be on the books, but we have to keep them, because the players we've bought to replace them have been just as bad, if not worse.
6 years on from our last title, we've spent a lot of money, paid a lot of wages and are a lot worse off for it.

Players who don't want to be here:
It's all paper talk, so this could be me moaning for the sake of it.
If Pogba wants to leave, get rid. As much as I want us to build our team around him, honestly, sometimes you question the effort he puts on the pitch. You watch the likes of Liverpool etc and as a team, they put effort in, every one of them. We have this potential world class midfielder, who is world class, when he wants to be. I'm sick of his attitude on the pitch some times. If we can get a big figure for him, I think we should sell and move on. If he wants to be here, then I want him to be here, but he needs to show it on the pitch week in, week out.
As for De Gea, he's coming to the last year of his contract. If he doesn't want to sign, lets move him on. I don't want to see him go, but I'd rather get something than nothing for him. If it means making a deal with Real and Courtois, lets do it. The only other place I can see him go, is PSG, so his options are limited, unless he runs his contract down.
Going back to contracts. He's worth a big contract, but it gets to a point were enough is enough, we can't just bend over to everyone demands. He's already the best paid keeper in the world.

The squad:
I look at our team and just wonder how it's got so bad. I know we finished second last year, but it wasn't a title challenge. This year we're so far off again, but player for player, I'd happily see so many replaced.
Rojo, Bailly, Jones, Valencia, Young, Darmian, Fred, Andreas, Matic, Mata, Lukaku and Sanchez. On top of this, we've got an issue with Herrera and potential issues with Pogba and De Gea. Thats 12-15 players.

It's so disheartening to look at all the mediocre players in the side. I know we need squad players and all, but some of them don't deserve to be that, some of them are on wages that deserve to be key players, yet should be warming out bench. Theres just so much wrong with our squad in that regard.

The Fans:
This is a little off topic, but today I learned that Zebra finance has decided to not finance season tickets anymore. Clubs have sourced other companies. City from my understanding offer 0% finance from themselves, yet us, nope, just charge full price up front, or lose your ticket. I think the club has no rapport with the fans, and things like this are just little frustrating things that a club shouldn't be doing.

-----

Anyway, rant over :joy:
I just get so frustrated with how the club is going these days.
We're in a fight for top 4, currently 6th, with the highest wage bill in the league, millions of pounds spent, and progressively going backwards.
Good post, I would add Lingard to the list of players who can leave, way over hyped. If he wasn't English he'd be crucified on the cafe.
 

Bastian

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It always annoys me when it's said that so and so has been offered the highest contract in the history of a club. When in reality, wages are always going up in football so it's a bit of a pointless thing to state.

In exactly the same way it annoys me that the press has been briefed that we might spend the most out of any transfer window so far, when quite obviously the market has massively inflated, and the price of a half decent player is north of 40m. We bought Fred for 50m, granted we (Ed) are shite at negotiating deals.

If we've got 200m to spend this summer (net) then that's in line with the ambitions to get into the top 4. If we were thinking of challenging for the main titles we are looking at double that or a total restructure of footballing operations where we start getting ahead of other clubs in securing the best talents before they become insanely expensive.

200m spend with Ed at the helm is probably 3rd or 4th next season, if we don't feck up with de Gea and Pogba.

I do wonder what the real ambition of the board is..
 

Fosu-Mens

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It always annoys me when it's said that so and so has been offered the highest contract in the history of a club. When in reality, wages are always going up in football so it's a bit of a pointless thing to state.

In exactly the same way it annoys me that the press has been briefed that we might spend the most out of any transfer window so far, when quite obviously the market has massively inflated, and the price of a half decent player is north of 40m. We bought Fred for 50m, granted we (Ed) are shite at negotiating deals.

If we've got 200m to spend this summer (net) then that's in line with the ambitions to get into the top 4. If we were thinking of challenging for the main titles we are looking at double that or a total restructure of footballing operations where we start getting ahead of other clubs in securing the best talents before they become insanely expensive.

200m spend with Ed at the helm is probably 3rd or 4th next season, if we don't feck up with de Gea and Pogba.

I do wonder what the real ambition of the board is..
Matt Judge (Head of corporate developement) is the person negotiating with agents, players and probably clubs.

We should aim for a safe top 4 next season.

The real ambition of the board is $$$. Nothing else.
 

Bastian

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Matt Judge (Head of corporate developement) is the person negotiating with agents, players and probably clubs.

We should aim for a safe top 4 next season.

The real ambition of the board is $$$. Nothing else.
Fair enough, another moneyman who doesn't know what he's doing.

Aiming for a safe top 4 next season and nothing more will make it hard to attract top talent and retain the few we've got. But I'd really like to hear Ed come out and say that. "We've got a whopping war chest of 200m and our ambition is to be in the top 4". At least it would be transparent.
 

Mr Pigeon

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A rebuild means absolutely nothing if everything else stays the same. We haven't replaced all of Sir Alex's roles since he left. Sure, we've replaced the manager and coach, but we haven't replaced his other roles with a DoF, tactician, player motivator, commanding presence, tea lady, kitchen sink. We've had managers who had one or two of those things (and we also had Moyes) but that's not enough if we expected everything to transition smoother than it has.
 

Kill 'em all

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Our club is run by clueless amateurs. Nothing will change unless the board of directors changes and we get a few people who understand football running the club.
 

wolvored

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After watching tonight without a major rebuild we will be playing for 4th-6th place again. We need one or two who can shoot on target at least. not one of our front 3 or lingard who came on are consistant enough to lead a title charge.
 

Bojan11

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5 starters next season if the club wants to get back to high level. RB, CB, CM, RW and a striker.
 

Roboc7

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Over next two summer windows we have to find a RB, LB, CB, 2-3 midfielders, a RW and maybe even another forward. We have to improve first eleven and the squad. It’s a huge job and if we don’t invest heavily this summer in 4 players we’re just going to be stuck in this cycle of trying to scrape into the top 4.

Needs to be a huge improvement in number of players who can pass/control the ball to a high level, more pace, more mobility and less players doing a job or playing out of position.

To be honest I just don’t think that there is enough competency and understanding at the club to recognise this and I expect to be in similar position this time next year.
 

PoTMS

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We must sign at the very least 5 players in the summer. Can't go into next season without a right back, a winger and a centre back AGAIN.

De Gea
RB
CB
Lindelof
Shaw
CM
CM
Pogba
RW
CF
Martial/Rashford