Players we could sign right now

Inigo Montoya

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Another emerging talent from what I can see. Would also need careful handling in the PL but we're doing ok with James so far so...
 

Bestietom

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Soldier on with the Youngsters and bring in 2 players this January, A Midfielder and a CF.
 

Drz

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Soldier on with the Youngsters and bring in 2 players this January, A Midfielder and a CF.
Yea, ok, but who exactly?
I don't know about gettable in Jan, but what does the CAF make of Timo Werner as a CF? I find him technical and hard working in the few bits I have seen of him.
Midfield I'm clueless, caught the video Dani Olmo, but don't think he can play in central midfield.
 
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Andersonson

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In my opinion we should get

AMC: Dani Olmo - he'll probably be available at 40m. He's quite quality with the ball and he can also play as RW.
AML: Ryan Fraser - 20m He's on his last year of contract. Although a LW he's right footed which means that he probably can do the job as RW as well. Thanks to him and James we'll be able to play Martial upfront on a full time basis, relegating Rashford to squad player's status
CM: Declan Rice - That's going to be expensive but it would be worth it. God knows how much we need mobility and good old fashioned bite in that midfield of ours.

My team after January

----------------DDG---------------
AWB-------Maguire---Lindelof--------Shaw

----------------Rice----------------------
---------Fred----------Pogba-----------

Olmo-------------------------------Fraser/James

----------------Martial------------------------------

Hopefully that's enough for top 4
Everytime I've seen Olmo he has been pretty underwhelming. And that in CL qualifiers and Croatian league. I dont rate him at all.

Why is he so highly rated on here?

Rice I agree with. Can become top class
 

Andycoleno9

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Rakitic. He is 31 but he is playmaker that we need right now. He is out of favour now so we could get him very cheap
 

fergiesarmy1

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People would really play random. Free agents ahead of our England international striker, martial and our best forward prospect in decades
Think people are talking about backups as we played most of the 2nd half against West Ham with none of those three anywhere to be seen.
 

MrBrightside1989

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We must have another forward in the reserves who could be used if need be, no point bringing in players we know aren't anywhere near good enough...
if Rossi was fit and anything like decent he would have a club... he doesn't...
 

fps

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Hahaha, if Man United are genuinely considering anything like this, they may as well prepare for the Championship.
 

OleGunnar20

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Dani Olmo and Hakim Ziyech would be available. Although we may have to pay a bit over the odds to get them in January.

de Gea
Wan Bissaka Lindelof Maguire Shaw
McTominay Pogba
Ziyech Olmo James
Martial
Digne, Ndidi, Sancho and a back-up centre forward in the summer.​
Yes please.

Add a Lindelof replacement into the mix and I think we're there.
 

Freak

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Get in Erling Haland, Dani Olmo and a Creative playmaking CM (I don’t know who) in the January window as either first team/squad options.

——————-—-De Gea———————-
AWB——Tuanzebe——Maguire——Shaw
——————McT——-Playmaker———
Greenwood ———Pogba———James
————————-Martial———————


Subs: Romero, Lindelof, Young, Fred, Olmo, Haland, Rashford

Get Sancho, Madison and another top midfielder in the summer along with some squad options like Fraser and McGinn/Longstaff and we will be good to go.

Sell the crap like Lingard, Mata, Pereira, Matic, Rojo and Baily.
 

Lee565

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What would be stopping us in January signing these 3 players each under 25 million.

Emre Can, did really well with liverpool and for whatever reason thought Juventus was the better destination when they had signed ronaldo but it seems like sarri ain't really interested in him and he's free to play in the Europa league if we reach the knockout stages because sarri didnt include him in the champions league squad.

Alderweireld - the guy is better than lindelof, spurs are in a mess with loads of players wanting to leave and he has only 6 months left on his contract come January

Ryan Fraser, only 6 months left on his contract in January, can play left, attacking midfield and right wing, would get into our current first team as either an attacking midfielder or on the right wing as he's better than the likes of lingard and mata by some distance and would even put up a fight for the left wing role against James.

All 3 players are at good ages for their position on the pitch.
 

Josep Dowling

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What would be stopping us in January signing these 3 players each under 25 million.

Emre Can, did really well with liverpool and for whatever reason thought Juventus was the better destination when they had signed ronaldo but it seems like sarri ain't really interested in him and he's free to play in the Europa league of we reach the knockout stages.

Alderweireld - the guy is better than lindelof, and has only 6 months left on his contract come January.

Ryan Fraser, only 6 months left on his contract in January, can play left, attacking midfield and right wing, would get into our current first team as either an attacking midfielder or on the right wing as he's better than the likes of lingard and mata by some distance and would even put up a fight for the left wing role against James.

All 3 players are at good ages for their position on the pitch.
All three of those signings are underwhelming and doesn't really solve any issues in our squad. Alderweireld will want a mega contract and approaching his 30s now. I wouldn't be surprised if we had already enquired last season and bulked because of his wages demands. Can spends most of the season injuried. Fraser is a LW. I am fed up of us not buying a natural RW.

If we were to buy anyone on the cheap surely Depay has to be a shout, I thought we had a buy back clause on him? Can play as a number 10, striker or LW.
 

mitchmouse

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I almost never listen to (and even less often agree with) TalkCrap radio but I think I heard Clayton Blackmore and some presenter talking about Zlatan. I agree: it's not one for the future but you can't not think about the present and he could just get enough goals (and be a great role model for the youngsters) to get us into fourth place, which means we can buy proper players instead of Sean bloody Longstaff
 

Johan07

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What would be stopping us in January signing these 3 players each under 25 million.

Emre Can, did really well with liverpool and for whatever reason thought Juventus was the better destination when they had signed ronaldo but it seems like sarri ain't really interested in him and he's free to play in the Europa league if we reach the knockout stages because sarri didnt include him in the champions league squad.

Alderweireld - the guy is better than lindelof, spurs are in a mess with loads of players wanting to leave and he has only 6 months left on his contract come January

Ryan Fraser, only 6 months left on his contract in January, can play left, attacking midfield and right wing, would get into our current first team as either an attacking midfielder or on the right wing as he's better than the likes of lingard and mata by some distance and would even put up a fight for the left wing role against James.

All 3 players are at good ages for their position on the pitch.
We should really stop trying to fix our team with stop-gaps.
Emre fecking Can? Seriously?
Why should we replace a 25 year old Victor with a declining old Aldeweireld who btw has the same "weaknesses" as Lindelöf footballing-wise.
And Ryan Fraser is an Everton or West Ham player at his best.
 

Denis79

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We are not signing anyone in January.

We will sign players next season along with selling Pogba, net spend around £60-70m.
If we buy in January we'll have a lower net spend in the summer window. I am 100% certain Pogba is leaving this summer. Mino and Pogba have a whole season to arrange a transfer now, I also believe that only a fraction the Pogba money will be added to the excisting transfer budget. As you said 60-70M net spend is about what they are willing to spend outside the CL.
 

Johan07

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If we buy in January we'll have a lower net spend in the summer window. I am 100% certain Pogba is leaving this summer. Mino and Pogba have a whole season to arrange a transfer now, I also believe that only a fraction the Pogba money will be added to the excisting transfer budget. As you said 60-70M net spend is about what they are willing to spend outside the CL.
We will invest heavily next summer IMO. Even if Pogba stays it will be at least two CMS and hopefully Sancho if he wants to come.
And it will have nothing to do with "net spend". That term should be banned on here.
We have cleared up our wage bill this summer with Sanchez and Lukaku leaving. Matic is not going to be here nxt season either. It opens up a lot of opportunities for nxt summer.
I would not be surprised if we shelled out for Sancho, Partey and Longstaff nxt summer. And that has nothing to do with how much the investment in transfer fees would be.
 

MikeUpNorth

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We will invest heavily next summer IMO. Even if Pogba stays it will be at least two CMS and hopefully Sancho if he wants to come.
And it will have nothing to do with "net spend". That term should be banned on here.
We have cleared up our wage bill this summer with Sanchez and Lukaku leaving. Matic is not going to be here nxt season either. It opens up a lot of opportunities for nxt summer.
I would not be surprised if we shelled out for Sancho, Partey and Longstaff nxt summer. And that has nothing to do with how much the investment in transfer fees would be.
I suspect it will be similar to this summer.

From the Man Utd annual report just released (my bold):
Amortization, primarily of registrations, for the year ended 30 June 2019 was £129.2 million, a decrease of £9.2 million, or 6.6%, over the year ended 30 June 2018. The unamortized balance of registrations as of 30 June 2019 was £338.8 million, of which £124.6 million is expected to be amortized in the year ending 30 June 2020. The remaining balance is expected to be amortized over the four years ending 30 June 2024. This does not take into account player acquisitions after 30 June 2019, which would have the effect of increasing the amortization expense in future periods, nor does it consider player departures subsequent to 30 June 2019, which would have the effect of decreasing future amortization charges. Furthermore, any contract renegotiations would also impact future charges.
There's still a huge amount of previous transfer spend to be pushed through the accounts, before we even get into the business of signing more players. Can't see us being able to make any unusually large transfer spending commitments, especially as revenue will be lower due to no Champions League football.

I'm afraid we've already spent our money, and we spent it poorly. Same as I predicted ahead of this summers window:
Spot on. We already have the most expensive squad in the league, in terms of wages. We spent our money, and we spent it badly.

From here on out, it’s a process of trying to buy 1 or 2 good players each summer and slowly transform the squad over the next 5 years, while growing revenue to hopefully ease the burden of the stupid wages we’re paying our players.
 
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Water Melon

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We will invest heavily next summer IMO. Even if Pogba stays it will be at least two CMS and hopefully Sancho if he wants to come.
And it will have nothing to do with "net spend". That term should be banned on here.
We have cleared up our wage bill this summer with Sanchez and Lukaku leaving. Matic is not going to be here nxt season either. It opens up a lot of opportunities for nxt summer.
I would not be surprised if we shelled out for Sancho, Partey and Longstaff nxt summer. And that has nothing to do with how much the investment in transfer fees would be.
Net spend is relevant, does not show everything, but quite an important parameter. Also, we have actually signed players too, who are paid their wages. We are still paying a part of Alexis' wages too. Absolutely no guarantee that we won't be paying his wages in his full again come summer.

I suspect it will be similar to this summer.

From the Man Utd annual report just released (my bold):

There's still a huge amount of previous transfer spend to be pushed through the accounts, before we even get into the business of signing more players. Can't see us being able to make any unusually large transfer spending commitments, especially as revenue will be lower due to no Champions League football.
Agree with this.
 

Adamsk7

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I actually like the idea of us having a lower budget each year (according to market inflation, of course). Look at this year - three in, probably three of our best players. If we can do the same again next season, one established player, one already known potential and one under the radar bargain, our squad will be much healthier.

I’m all for the slow approach if this is the quality we can expect
 

Johan07

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I suspect it will be similar to this summer.

From the Man Utd annual report just released (my bold):

There's still a huge amount of previous transfer spend to be pushed through the accounts, before we even get into the business of signing more players. Can't see us being able to make any unusually large transfer spending commitments, especially as revenue will be lower due to no Champions League football.
I completely disagree.
What we will invest nxt summer in player registration fees has nothing to do with that though. Its about cashflow = wages.
The Glazers dont take out dividends from the club (OK, marginally, because of their commitment to the NYSE).
I usually take Pogba as an example: We paid 90m for him and Real will have to come up with 150m plus nxt summer. We will have made money on him when that happens. Including the wages we have paid him.
The club will reason the exact same way about a player like Sancho.
Thats not a cost, its a valid investment.
What I think we will stay away from is going for older players like Sanchez and Zlatan (or Perisic or Willian), when the transfer fee might be negligable but the cost for the club is tremendous. And that approach I agree on.
 

Denis79

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We will invest heavily next summer IMO. Even if Pogba stays it will be at least two CMS and hopefully Sancho if he wants to come.
And it will have nothing to do with "net spend". That term should be banned on here.
We have cleared up our wage bill this summer with Sanchez and Lukaku leaving. Matic is not going to be here nxt season either. It opens up a lot of opportunities for nxt summer.
I would not be surprised if we shelled out for Sancho, Partey and Longstaff nxt summer. And that has nothing to do with how much the investment in transfer fees would be.
Same was said by Glazer apologists this summer, and I can bet anything that the amount of current funds they'll make available (net spend) will be similar to this year. If we sell pogba we'll buy more but I doubt the anything but a fraction of those funds will be re-invested in players.
 

MikeUpNorth

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I completely disagree.
What we will invest nxt summer in player registration fees has nothing to do with that though. Its about cashflow = wages.
The Glazers dont take out dividends from the club (OK, marginally, because of their commitment to the NYSE).
I usually take Pogba as an example: We paid 90m for him and Real will have to come up with 150m plus nxt summer. We will have made money on him when that happens. Including the wages we have paid him.
The club will reason the exact same way about a player like Sancho.
Thats not a cost, its a valid investment.
What I think we will stay away from is going for older players like Sanchez and Zlatan (or Perisic or Willian), when the transfer fee might be negligable but the cost for the club is tremendous. And that approach I agree on.
I don't believe the club are buying players with the thought of making a capital gain from selling them a few years down the line. Or if that is what they're thinking, then they've done an unbelievably poor job, losing a fortune in the process.
 

Johan07

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I don't believe the club are buying players with the thought of making a capital gain from selling them a few years down the line. Or if that is what they're thinking, then they've done an unbelievably poor job, losing a fortune in the process.
I dont think so either. I actually think that most people at the club, owners, Woodward, the Board of Advisors, has the clubs best interests at heart. That might set me apart from Caf-members on threads like this. But still. I dont get the anger on here sometimes.
What I do think and what is supported by evidence is that we have never shied from investing in young players with potential. Look at Maguire and AWB now. And thats both justifiable from a footballing and financial perspective, which was the point I was trying to make.
EDIT
I should add Dan James of course. Perfect example. Do I think we bought him to make money? Naw.
Is he worth 70m now instead of the 20m we paid: Yeah, probably.
This is exactly why this fecking "net spend" shit is completely irrelevant.
We got Alexis almost on a free and he is still costing us money. One cant compare one transfer to another from neither a footballing or a financial perspective. Sorry, but its just really stupid.
 
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MikeUpNorth

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I dont think so either. I actually think that most people at the club, owners, Woodward, the Board of Advisors, has the clubs best interests at heart. That might set me apart from Caf-members on threads like this. But still. I dont get the anger on here sometimes.
What I do think and what is supported by evidence is that we have never shied from investing in young players with potential. Look at Maguire and AWB now. And thats both justifiable from a footballing and financial perspective, which was the point I was trying to make.
I don't have any anger related to the level of investment in the squad either - a huge amount of money has been spent. It has just been spent appallingly badly.

I would expect us to spend around £100m (net) on player registrations each calendar year, +/- 25%. That's what the accounts seems to support. People hoping for a summer where we spend £300m on 4 top quality players are going to be disappointed, I think.
 

Johan07

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Same was said by Glazer apologists this summer, and I can bet anything that the amount of current funds they'll make available (net spend) will be similar to this year. If we sell pogba we'll buy more but I doubt the anything but a fraction of those funds will be re-invested in players.
Yeah, OK, you dont get basic financials. We will leave it at that.
 

MikeUpNorth

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We will invest heavily next summer IMO. Even if Pogba stays it will be at least two CMS and hopefully Sancho if he wants to come.
And it will have nothing to do with "net spend". That term should be banned on here.
We have cleared up our wage bill this summer with Sanchez and Lukaku leaving. Matic is not going to be here nxt season either. It opens up a lot of opportunities for nxt summer.
I would not be surprised if we shelled out for Sancho, Partey and Longstaff nxt summer. And that has nothing to do with how much the investment in transfer fees would be.
'Net spend' is explicitly referenced in the club's financial accounts in determining transfer spend (my bold):

We remain committed to attracting and retaining the highest quality players and key football management staff for our men’s first team. Our average annual net registrations capital expenditure over the last 5 years has been £115.0 million and we continue to expect it to vary significantly from period to period. We may explore new player acquisitions in connection with future transfer periods that may materially increase the amount of our net capital expenditure on intangible assets. As part of any material increase in net capital expenditure on intangible assets, we may also experience a material increase in our expenditure for player salaries. The actual amount of cash we use on player acquisitions will also depend, in part, on the amount of any cash we receive as a result of the sale of any players.
This is how the club thinks. Or at least, how it tells its investors it thinks, in its legally binding annual report to shareholders.
 

Johan07

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I don't have any anger related to the level of investment in the squad either - a huge amount of money has been spent. It has just been spent appallingly badly.

I would expect us to spend around £100m (net) on player registrations each calendar year, +/- 25%. That's what the accounts seems to support. People hoping for a summer where we spend £300m on 4 top quality players are going to be disappointed, I think.
We will obviously not spend our entire cash at hand on transfer fees in one summer. But we will not need to either.
With the exception of maybe the Neymar-transfer, one doesnt pay the entire transfer fee at once normally. Its paid in arrears. Or if they play hardball in Spain over another release clause.
Which is why we have payables still for a lot of old transfers.
We have a very big amount cash in hand and the option to borrow more if needed (like all other clubs do, see Barcelona this summer). There is no limit for us investing in young players this summer as long as they a) want to come and b) dont want an extreme wage.
 

Johan07

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'Net spend' is explicitly referenced in the club's financial accounts in determining transfer spend (my bold):



This is how the club thinks. Or at least, how it tells its investors it thinks, in its legally binding annual report to shareholders.
Yes, of course it is. Perfectly logical from a financing point of view. Its a financial statement saying that the club has not needed to take up short term loans to finance transfers. Which is a good thing, no? It has nothing to do with our ability to invest in players though, and its definitely not comparable to the "net spend" definition that floats here.
 

MikeUpNorth

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We will obviously not spend our entire cash at hand on transfer fees in one summer. But we will not need to either.
With the exception of maybe the Neymar-transfer, one doesnt pay the entire transfer fee at once normally. Its paid in arrears. Or if they play hardball in Spain over another release clause.
Which is why we have payables still for a lot of old transfers.
We have a very big amount cash in hand and the option to borrow more if needed (like all other clubs do, see Barcelona this summer). There is no limit for us investing in young players this summer as long as they a) want to come and b) dont want an extreme wage.
Haha, why are you talking to me like I don't understand the basics of football finance? I understand the financials perfectly well.

Yes, from a cashflow perspective, transfer spend takes place over period of time, and/or based on contractual milestones. And yes, from a P&L perspective, player registration fees are typically amortised over the length of the contract.

The club has no issue with cashflow - as you say we have a good amount of cash on hand, and debt and contractual calls on capital are manageable.

The restriction on transfer spend will come from a P&L perspective, as any spend in excess of our average annual transfer spend necessarily reduces the amount available in future windows (unless the club is prepared to have a financial year or two where it posts significantly decreased profits).

The club could decide to spend £300m this summer, but that would effectively be using up 3 years of transfer spend in one window. I think that's unlikely.

Over a 5 year period, the club has around £500-600m ish it can spend on transfers (net). You could decide to front load that and commit to £300m this summer, but is that what you'd do?
 
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