‘Ole’s recruitment has been great’ narrative

Josep Dowling

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3 players were signed in the summer. £130m spent on two players to improve the defence. A defence that can’t keep a clean sheet.

We have spent a world record fee for a defender who is a nothing more than a solid CB. He doesn’t partner with Lindelof because both of them lack pace.

AWB is mirroring Antonio Valencia when going forward. His attacking weaknesses were mentioned by many on here before we signed him.

And finally Daniel James. The gamble that didn’t make much sense. We have two very young forwards in Rashford and Martial. Ole knew Lukaku and Sanchez wanted to leave. Surely then we should have gone for a more experienced player? James’ favoured position is LW, which is Rashford’s position. He’s being played out of position.
 

Paul_Scholes18

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3 players were signed in the summer. £130m spent on two players to improve the defence. A defence that can’t keep a clean sheet.

We have spent a world record fee for a defender who is a nothing more than a solid CB. He doesn’t partner with Lindelof because both of them lack pace.

AWB is mirroring Antonio Valencia when going forward. His attacking weaknesses were mentioned by many on here before we signed him.

And finally Daniel James. The gamble that didn’t make much sense. We have two very young forwards in Rashford and Martial. Ole knew Lukaku and Sanchez wanted to leave. Surely then we should have gone for a more experienced player? James’ favoured position is LW, which is Rashford’s position. He’s being played out of position.
James was a good buy no doubt. Although he should not have been the only attacker bought. We needed a right back so AWB was a decent buy. Although I would have liked a more attacking fullback.
 

Skills

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People were desperate to spin anything they could into a positive.
 

Hoof the ball

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James was a good buy no doubt. Although he should not have been the only attacker bought. We needed a right back so AWB was a decent buy. Although I would have liked a more attacking fullback.
James was a good buy.........as an impact player. It's quite unforgivable that a championship kid with very limited first team experience prior to the signing is an automatic first choice forward for an aspiring top four club.

The reliance upon him to create and win us games is an indictment on the club and its current standards.
 

SAFMUTD

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I wouldn’t call the signings failures just yet, any player no matter how good would look shit if playing in a tacticless team.

If may actually come good for the three signings under a proper manager.
 

Massive Spanner

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I think all 3 will go on to be good/decent players for us. AWB may turn out to be more than that, if he improves his game going forward. That's a lot more than you can say about most signings we've made in the last decade, at least. The problem is that really, he signed the £80m player in the wrong position and it's killing us.
 

Rado_N

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James has mostly been brilliant. AWB has been a bit mixed but has shown a lot of promise.

Maguire was a ridiculous buy from the word go, we’d have been far better off keeping Smalling and spending the money elsewhere.
 

momo83

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James was a good buy no doubt. Although he should not have been the only attacker bought. We needed a right back so AWB was a decent buy. Although I would have liked a more attacking fullback.
The thing is I think AWB has the potential to improve his attacking play. But Ole doesn’t have the ability to coach and develop that ability out of him.
 

Snafu17

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They have been fine. James has even been very good.

The recruitment wasn't good though. Leaving significant and very obvious gaps in our squad was inevitably going to bite us during the season. I'm not sure if that was OGS's decision necessarily, but it doesn't really matter at this point.
 

thejtrain

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Maguire was a ridiculous buy from the word go, we’d have been far better off keeping Smalling and spending the money elsewhere.
I still expect him to come good and cement his position as one of our first choice CBs, but not with Lindelof alongside.
 

VorZakone

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Maguire was a great signing because he’s better than Jones and Bailly, or something. :houllier:
Well, he is. But he should have been partnered with Smalling IMO. Lindelof doesn't convince me at all.
 

Halftrack

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I still expect him to come good and cement his position as one of our first choice CBs, but not with Lindelof alongside.
Given that Lindelöf's been comfortably better than him for a while now, it seems weird to peg Victor as the problem.
 

Irwin99

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I think give it until the end of the season and well into next season before assessing whether they've been great buys or not. This was always a slightly bizarre narrative to say that they've been successful purchases after only about a dozen games considering we've had players like Di Maria, Veron, Depay and even fecking Darmian who came in and did well initially but we all know what happened to their United careers. Equally the likes of Vidic, Evra, Sheringham, Stam had mixed starts in their first few months but they're United legends.

I think Maguire and James will be good signings in the long run and so will AWB if he can improve on a few points to his game that are honestly a bit worrying (he's got time on his side too). They've all come into a faltering side though with massive squad issues though. That's why the transfer window was such a crap one- you're basically asking these three players to make the difference from last season.
 

Greck

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You reached calling the James signing unnecessary. Could have done without that. AWB I'm certain will lose favour really quick. He may have technical ability worse than Lukaku. If we're talking about his template for improvement in attack, he hasn't got much talent to work with
 

Josep Dowling

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James has mostly been brilliant. AWB has been a bit mixed but has shown a lot of promise.

Maguire was a ridiculous buy from the word go, we’d have been far better off keeping Smalling and spending the money elsewhere.
I see this a lot and I just don’t think it’s true. He doing better than the expectation of an £18m signing from the Championship. Is he doing brilliant in the context of performing for an elite club? I personally don’t think so.

At least he does put a shift in when he plays. More than what can be said of Martial.
 

Untd55

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Maguire was not worth anywhere near the money we spent. He isn't any better than Smalling defensively. We bought Maguire for his passing, but it is utter stupidity in prioritising a defender who can pass when you are so short in midfield.

I think Bissaka is a good player, but he should have been the only defensive recruitment. He has improved our defence on the right side of the pitch. On the other hand, Maguire has not improved anything.

James would be a good buy, but not when you need a real top-class right-winger. He has done well, but people go over the top with praise. He is a squad player at best.

The recruitment was a shambles in the summer. It is clear that midfield and attack should have been prioritised with the loss of Herrera.
 

Castia

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Maguire is worrying. He’s nowhere near a £80m level centre back.

He‘s improved the starting 11 but damn he’s nowhere near the level you’d expect from an £80m signing, the lack of pace is really eye catching he’s like a snail.
 

Josep Dowling

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They have been fine. James has even been very good.

The recruitment wasn't good though. Leaving significant and very obvious gaps in our squad was inevitably going to bite us during the season. I'm not sure if that was OGS's decision necessarily, but it doesn't really matter at this point.
I think it does. If Ole wasn’t backed properly I think more fans would be patient. But he spent £150m on 3 players. That was the highest spend in the league once again and we ended up with a worse team when the window closed.

Our midfield targets appeared to be Longstaff and Bruno Fernandes. Then a last ditch attempt to sign Dybala. That says to me he wasn’t that fussed about signing a midfielder even though two CM had left.

The only forward we were linked with was Mandzukic. Again he believed it was the right time for Martial and Rashford to finally step up a level.

I think Ole wanted to promote a lot of the youth players believing they were ready and that’s why we didn’t get in more players.Not only is his tactics and training clearly not working but his judgement of what the squad required was all wrong as well.
 

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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Maguire and Wan Bissaka were hardly "finds" either were they. They were known to everybody in the world who follows the Premier League.

James has mostly been brilliant. AWB has been a bit mixed but has shown a lot of promise.

Maguire was a ridiculous buy from the word go, we’d have been far better off keeping Smalling and spending the money elsewhere.
If James has been brilliant has Rashford been world class? Or are our expectations different depending on the player?
 

kouroux

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I still expect him to come good and cement his position as one of our first choice CBs, but not with Lindelof alongside.
He will do it not because he will have necessarily earned it but because of his transfer fee, he will have to start for us for the foreseeable future
 

Sandikan

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3 players were signed in the summer. £130m spent on two players to improve the defence. A defence that can’t keep a clean sheet.

We have spent a world record fee for a defender who is a nothing more than a solid CB. He doesn’t partner with Lindelof because both of them lack pace.

AWB is mirroring Antonio Valencia when going forward. His attacking weaknesses were mentioned by many on here before we signed him.

And finally Daniel James. The gamble that didn’t make much sense. We have two very young forwards in Rashford and Martial. Ole knew Lukaku and Sanchez wanted to leave. Surely then we should have gone for a more experienced player? James’ favoured position is LW, which is Rashford’s position. He’s being played out of position.
James is the one that's come off without any doubt though.
It's not his fault he's having to start every game as the rest of the squad is so bare.
 

Sandikan

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Maguire and Wan Bissaka were hardly "finds" either were they. They were known to everybody in the world who follows the Premier League.


If James has been brilliant has Rashford been world class? Or are our expectations different depending on the player?
Yes frankly.

Hence Pogba getting dogs abuse, and early day McTom only having to make a sidewards pass to get praise.
 

hobbers

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James was a good punt that Ole had no input in.

AWB was the top target produced by the club scouts for right back, and Ole said yes.

Maguire was the top target produced by club scouts for centre back, and Ole said yes.


That was his input in these deals, saying yes to them. Fair enough, but it's not like he unearthed any gems or sent his chief scout off somewhere to watch someone for a full season like Fergie would often do.

And let's not forget that this £160m defence (AWB+Linde+Maguire) is not exactly performing like a top four standard defence under Ole's tutelage, is it?
 

United58

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James has mostly been brilliant. AWB has been a bit mixed but has shown a lot of promise.

Maguire was a ridiculous buy from the word go, we’d have been far better off keeping Smalling and spending the money elsewhere.
Maguire's an upgrade on Smalling, but not an £80m upgrade. We would have been fine running with Lindelof and Smalling for the season, especially given Smalling's injury resistance (something almost none of our other players have) and our dire need of upgrades in other areas. Despite the wages we pay, we truly are an upper mid-table team now - how bad are the likes of Shaw, Young, Matic and Lingard, all on over £100k p/w?
 

Enigma_87

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Shoveling 150m into the defence where it was clear to everyone we needed CM and CF was such a great business some were calling for him to be made DoF. :D :lol::houllier:

Fast forward 12 months and many will be saying spending 150m on Maguire and AWB(considering his attacking limitations), were terrible business and money down the drain, just like the narrative we have now with what the past managers have done.
 

AFC NimbleThumb

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Someone did a breakdown of the goals conceded; though the overall number hasn’t been too terrible we generally concede every game.

OgS apologists need to seriously explain their stance because this martyrdom is actually putting the club further back.

He has no place managing a club our size.
 

Dec9003

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I think all three were good signings, I like all of them, especially James. We needed midfielders as well though.
 

Wednesday at Stoke

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The entire team was looking much better with McTominay or Pogba in there. Apparently having a functioning midfield matters to both attack and defence and that one area was completely missed.
 

Andycoleno9

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I still expect him to come good and cement his position as one of our first choice CBs, but not with Lindelof alongside.
I love this part. Except maybe first few matches, Lindelof was much better than Maguire but he is the problem?
Look at Villa game. Can you name one mistake or bad reaction from Lindelof? On the other hand, Maguire was all over the place.
But yeah, Lindelof is the problem for Maguire being average defender
 

MoskvaRed

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It’s too early to judge any of them properly but I can’t say any of them have so far looked like world beaters (particularly our 80m defender). In any case, it feels like desperately reaching for positives in a situation where every other indicator screams out that we are heading for the rocks.
 

el3mel

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It's bizarre. It's like people just memorize and repeat this narrative regardless of their performance on the pitch.

I'm honestly pretty sure 1 or 2 years from now we will regard this window as an absolute rubbish one.