The Deadwoods Assassinated by Babyface

[meamth]

But are we freeing up cash to then adequately replace these players? or are we doing to it to save the Glazers more money? We have already seen the Glazers tighten the purse strings in terms of Transfer budgets, and how do we know they aren't going to do the same to the wage bill? I don't know how anyone can have confidence we will we bring in any sort of quality next Summer.

We could well be in a position next Summer where we have just finished 9th or 10th, lost Pogba and De Gea, have a pretty poor squad as it is, have Woodward negotiating transfers and the Glazers who are tightening the purse strings? Sounds like doomsday, but is a very real scenario in place.

Alot more realistic then us going on a 'mad one' and signing the likes of Jadon Sancho etc anyways.

Think a few people need to wake up and realize the huge mess we are in.

I've seen worse. The shambles that was Moyes, the countless sleep I had during LvG tenure, the toxic nature that was Mourinho. ( I liked him btw)

We had our time signing word class players, that didn't work because the squad we had was trash.

If the first phase of this project is to give new space and foundation, then let's do it. Unless If we didn't add up the squad with players wanting to play for United next season, than that's when we can riot. That is for me.

You can panic all you want, we won't stop you from that.

 

[Ikon]

The players will need replacing eventually but am I annoyed they're not being replaced right now? Nope couldn't give a toss. More than happy to endure the possible short term pain

Ditto.
We most definitely should have signed a MF, but the most important thing is to get the right players in, and if that means being patient, then so be it.
We have had years of bad recruitment, so lets get it right under Ole.

 

[EwanI Ted]

The team Ole has now is pretty limited tbh, but at least they seem honest and willing. The Mourinho era was characterised by over paid, experienced but souless pros turning out stodgy half arsed performances in 2nd gear week after week, which is a special kind of infuriating for a fan. Its going to be a rough season whatever happens, but Id still prefer it to that nonsense.

 

[JohnnyKills]

I wanted to write that point across, thank you.

We're demolishing the big mansion we built with different contractors, all of it.

With that empty land, here comes another contractor, let him finish the project

The analogy is a good one but the conclusion is debatable, to me anyway.

To extend your metaphor, Solskjaer might be a great person to lay the foundations, but is he the right person to build the house and the roof?

He's done all the right things so far, sure. He's offloaded the players the fans wanted to offload and he's giving young players plenty of opportunities.

But he's also shown himself to be a bit naive tactically and it's open to question whether he can attract top foreign players.

So it might be prudent to give him this season, allowing him time to bring through the young lads, and then appoint a more experienced name in the summer.

If you look at City's 10-year overhaul since the Emiratis took over, they've had a different manager for each stage of the process. There's no reason why we couldn't copy that strategy.

 

[sunama]

Buckle in and join me in the same boat, ride through the next couple of seasons whilst we rebuild.

I don't understand this term "rebuild". Almost every team is rebuilding and buildings for the next season.
Given our spending, we have been rebuilding since SAF retired.
I would actually argue that the speed of our "rebuild" has slowed down. Net spend of around £70M for the last 2 Summers.

Real Madrid are doing a rebuild, spending large sums of money to ensure that they are able to continue competing at the top.

 

[NoLogo]

Dead wood going out is overdue and necessary and it's nice to see that something is finally happening.

But as the OP stated it's not really worth much if we don't strengthen the squad and while we brought in two good players in defense our midfield and attack are still far off the standard required of a top team. We still need to add some quality to the right wing and central midfield, where I think we have the biggest problems right now. A world class striker wouldn't have hurt but let's not kid ourselves in our current state we just won't get that kind of player.

 

[JohnnyKills]

I don't understand this term "rebuild". Almost every team is rebuilding and buildings for the next season.
Given our spending, we have been rebuilding since SAF retired.
I would actually argue that the speed of our "rebuild" has slowed down. Net spend of around £70M for the last 2 Summers.

Real Madrid are doing a rebuild, spending large sums of money to ensure that they are able to continue competing at the top.

It's not fair to judge OGS by the failures of his predecessors, is it?

You could easily argue that only LVG conducted anything like a rebuild. Moyes didn't seem to know what he wanted to achieve and Mourinho just wanted to burnish his reputation with short-term signings.

The work Solskjaer is doing now should have been done years ago.

 

[meamth]

The analogy is a good one but the conclusion is debatable.

To extend your metaphor, Solskjaer might be a great person to lay the foundations, but is he the right person to build the house and the roof?

He's done all the right things so far, sure. He's offloaded the players the fans wanted to offload and he's giving young players plenty of opportunities.

But he's also shown himself to be a bit naive tactically and it's open to question whether he can attract top foreign players.

So it might be prudent to give him this season, allowing him time to bring through the young lads, and then appoint a more experienced name in the summer.

If you look at City's 10-year overhaul since the Emiratis took over, they've had a different manager for each stage of the process. There's no reason why we couldn't copy that strategy.

Great point there. That's a debate we can never solve isn't it. We're a club with a history of being loyal to managers, maybe it's the old formula we have to finally ditch.

If City is the model to the level of success then I'm afraid some of the posters here are right to doubt him.

 

[Frank Grimes]

January window should be used to get rid of a few more but this time we should also sign a couple.

 

[JohnnyKills]

Great point there. That's a debate we can never solve isn't it. We're a club with a history of being loyal to managers, maybe it's the old formula we have to finally ditch.

If City is the model to the level of success then I'm afraid some of the posters here are right to doubt him.

Not sure that's true reallly.

We've had two outstanding managers in our history. They kept winning trophies, so it's natural that we kept faith in them.

Look at the other managers we've had since WW2, and the time they got in the job:

McGuiness - 18 months or thereabouts.
O'Farrell - 18 months.
Docherty - four and a half years.
Sexton - four years.
Atkinson - four years.
Moyes - 10 months.
LVG - 2 years.
Mourinho - two and a half years.

Worth saying that most of those managers either won trophies or challenged for the league during their time at the club. They weren't exactly failures. Plus it was quite normal to stick with a manager for 3-4 years before the Premier League came along.

So, when you look at it, we're really no more or less loyal than any other club. The only time we've really showed loyalty to a failing manager is Fergie for a couple of months in the 89/90 season. Yes we were rewarded spectacularly for that decision, but it hardly fits our overall history.

 

[Aretak]

So it might be prudent to give him this season, allowing him time to bring through the young lads, and then appoint a more experienced name in the summer.

I just don't see the squad being ready to challenge for the big trophies next season. As nice as the fantasy of bringing in 5 or 6 top class players next summer to replace all these wasters who've been moved on is, it's very unlikely to actually happen. The strategy seems to be focusing on youngsters who are going to need a year or two to settle and develop. And that's before you get into the challenges that will no doubt be on the table next summer - De Gea possibly/probably off, Pogba making noise about a transfer again, Sanchez back and on full wages, etc. IMO Solskjaer should get no less than this season and next, unless something goes truly disastrously wrong. At the very least he's shown that he's doing a good job of finally cleaning up the mess of a squad that's characterised the post-Ferguson era, so I don't see a problem with him being given a few more windows to carry on that work. And then if two years from now he's developed into a manager capable of taking that squad to the next level, fantastic. Who doesn't want that? If he hasn't, he'll be replaced. Either way, patience is going to be required. The club has tried appointing big name managers to an underdeveloped squad and the results were no better. It's going to take time.

 

[JohnnyKills]

I just don't see the squad being ready to challenge for the big trophies next season. As nice as the fantasy of bringing in 5 or 6 top class players next summer to replace all these wasters who've been moved on is, it's very unlikely to actually happen. The strategy seems to be focusing on youngsters who are going to need a year or two to settle and develop. And that's before you get into the challenges that will no doubt be on the table next summer - De Gea possibly/probably off, Pogba making noise about a transfer again, Sanchez back and on full wages, etc. IMO Solskjaer should get no less than this season and next, unless something goes truly disastrously wrong. At the very least he's shown that he's doing a good job of finally cleaning up the mess of a squad that's characterised the post-Ferguson era, so I don't see a problem with him being given a few more windows to carry on that work. And then if two years from now he's developed into a manager capable of taking that squad to the next level, fantastic. Who doesn't want that? If he hasn't, he'll be replaced. Either way, patience is going to be required. The club has tried appointing big name managers to an underdeveloped squad and the results were no better. It's going to take time.

Get what you're saying. Tbh I didn't want OGS to be appointed but I'm more in favour of the idea now. He's done exactly what we needed by shifting all the expensive fringe players and promoting the kids instead.

But there's a big difference between believing in the man and believing in the project, isn't there. The project is sound, but I'm not sure he's the man to complete it.

He's a good candidate for phase 1, simply by virtue of being a decent man who enjoys good football and was a legend as a player. But when does that stop being enough? How long do we give a guy who's completely unproven as a top-level manager?

My view is that if we get top four this year, he stays - no question. If we don't get top four we have to make a judgement call, based on how we've performed during the season.

 

[bosnian_red]

Delighted with the summer at the end of the day tbh. If we had managed to keep Herrera I would've been happier, or buy a holding mid to replace him, but still good overall. Got rid of a good chunk of them, and you know we'll work on replacing them in future windows. We had to get rid of them first because of how bloated the squad was. Still another 5 or 6 to go in the next couple of years though (Matic, Mata, Pereira, Rojo, Young, Pogba out of necessity, some goalkeeper turnover, possibly Fred).

Very ok with giving young players the chance to step up in the mean time while we wait for the right players though. Delighted with Maguire, Wan Bissaka and James, but obviously will need a bit more along with Greenwood, Gomes, Chong, Garner, Tuanzebe stepping up into bigger roles. Which just needs time to find consistency.

 

[MrSingh2002]

We don't have enough of an influx of good players coming in. That's the problem.

We've had deadwood for years. Fergie carried some but got alot out of them. Moyes's deadwood became LVGs problem. LVGs deadwood became Jose's problem. Jose's deadwood became Ole's.

We need someone at the club that knows what they're doing with signings. AWB, Maguire and James are excellent signings and replacements for others. We quite simply needed two more signings. Fernandes and Piatek would've done it this pre season.

It's a shame Ed didn't back Jose with Maguire at the time. It's a shame Ed didn't back Ole with a midfielder or striker too, replacing Fellaini, Herrera and Lukaku.

The problem has been Woodward and the recruitment policy since Fergie left.

How do we solve that? Get rid of Ed. The Glazers weren't a problem when Fergie and Edwards were there. Ed needs to be fecked off instead of enjoying an enhanced reputation for Ole's good spots.

 

[Lentwood]

I think in defence of Ed, the European window closing so far after the British window has put our clubs at a huge disadvantage this Summer. Pep and Klopp have also made this point.

Lukaku went on British deadline day and Sanchez, Smalling and Darmian all went afterwards. Replacing them this window was always going to be tough.

I keep going back to the point but fans really need to forget about results this year. It’s about clearing the decks and laying some stable foundations and I really believe if we can tolerate some short term pain it will be in the long term interest of the club

 

[Winmove]

Deadwood is players who goes to much lesser team , except Valencia none of the players Ole sold are actually deadwood, selling or loan them all are just to lower our wage bill.

 

[roonster09]

Delighted with the summer at the end of the day tbh. If we had managed to keep Herrera I would've been happier, or buy a holding mid to replace him, but still good overall. Got rid of a good chunk of them, and you know we'll work on replacing them in future windows. We had to get rid of them first because of how bloated the squad was. Still another 5 or 6 to go in the next couple of years though (Matic, Mata, Pereira, Rojo, Young, Pogba out of necessity, some goalkeeper turnover, possibly Fred).

Very ok with giving young players the chance to step up in the mean time while we wait for the right players though. Delighted with Maguire, Wan Bissaka and James, but obviously will need a bit more along with Greenwood, Gomes, Chong, Garner, Tuanzebe stepping up into bigger roles. Which just needs time to find consistency.

Agree with most of it, happy with all the offloaded players (don't think Herrera counts here as he was the one who left on free transfer instead of us rejecting to offer him contract). Wish we signed one more CM/DM and a RW. Would have been very good window.

Also there is many highs and lows this season as we are cleaning up the mess but we shouldn't give up on results imo. Short term results are important too, what we should be focusing on is, how we are playing. How the overall team is playing instead of just going with results. You set the right foundation then the results will follow. For now at least I believe we are on right track.

 

[meamth]

My post was aimed at the fact that you rightly pointed out that we don't know the full story, yet there you are assuming he wanted 250K. And that it was a PR exercise when he called himself a Red Devil.

He was an integral part of Ole's team whom, am sure, he would have liked to keep. That he played so many games under Ole, is proof of that. And that's not even an assumption on my part... I was not always his biggest fan during his time here, but towards the end especially, he proved his worth.
IMO (and that's an assumption), he would have signed if we had done the right thing and offered him a contract sooner. To me, that's a respect thing...
And as @UTD55 pointed out, it seems that by the time we did offer him a contract, PSG had already offered him more. Assuming the laws of the game were followed, that would have been in the last 6 months of his contract with us. Now, what human being will sign a contract for a lower amount when another company is offering him a lot more.

Something that many seem to forget: When a player moves to another team on a free, having turned down a contract extension from his existing club, he usually ends up with a higher salary and other financial benefits, partly because he didn't command a transfer fee.
So, yeah, there's many factors in Herrera earning (apparently) 250k at PSG.

What made PSG offered him 250k at the first place?

Surely there's 3 part negotiation going on here. I would assume we dwelled on him because we believe that he won't be going anywhere. Then PSG came in with initial offer of below 250k, we countered with our own offer but yeah, obviously PSG will offer ridiculous amount to lure him out.

I truly believe that there was bidding war between him, United and PSG. Yes maybe we're late, but whatever happens Ander chose money over us.

 

[poleglass red]

I like the clear out. I really do, but I'd like to see him maybe give some of the kids a free run in the 1st team. What we are seeing is the younger lads thrown in as hail mary's for 10-15 mins in a game we are chasing. Seeing Young come in when Shaw got injured, why not give one of the younger lads a run.We know Young's limitations, time to clear the deadwood and promote the next batch of kids.

 

[MUFC OK]

Revisiting the topic of 'clearing out the deadwood' in a week when the champions league is taking place and we obviously play this evening in the europa league:

Sanchez and Lukaku are playing champions league for Inter.
Memphis scored in an important win for Lyon last night and is arguably their best player.
Ander Herrera is in PSG's squad and is getting increasingly more minutes despite better competition in their midfield than he had here.
Di Maria is one of PSG's best players, almost single handedly destroying Madrid in GW1.
Daley Blind played in a 3-0 shut out win for Ajax last night and reached the semi finals with that team last season.

Most of the above were widely deemed not to be good enough for us, and their exits were applauded on here by many posters. So, would any of these players improve our team at present? I think in hindsight we have let go of a lot of players that could still do a job for us and the reality is they are now thriving playing Champions League football whilst we are further away than ever from being in the competition.

 

[romufc]

Revisiting the topic of 'clearing out the deadwood' in a week when the champions league is taking place and we obviously play this evening in the europa league:

Sanchez and Lukaku are playing champions league for Inter.
Memphis scored in an important win for Lyon last night and is arguably their best player.
Ander Herrera is in PSG's squad and is getting increasingly more minutes despite better competition in their midfield than he had here.
Di Maria is one of PSG's best players, almost single handedly destroying Madrid in GW1.
Daley Blind played in a 3-0 shut out win for Ajax last night and reached the semi finals with that team last season.

Most of the above were widely deemed not to be good enough for us, and their exits were applauded on here by many posters. So, would any of these players improve our team at present? I think in hindsight we have let go of a lot of players that could still do a job for us and the reality is they are now thriving playing Champions League football whilst we are further away than ever from being in the competition.

Sanchez and Lukaku had been given a shot here. You are not saying just because they play Champions League we are better off having them? Sanchez got a lucky assist, and was poor the rest of the game. Lukaku is injured.

Memphis never worked out, a bit like salah at Chelsea and required game time, if he was that good someone would have snapped him up this summer

Ander Herrera CHOSE to leave United

Di Maria didn't want to be here, and was not played in his position LVG never fancied him

Blind was a player that didn't suit Jose.

 

[MUFC OK]

Sanchez and Lukaku had been given a shot here. You are not saying just because they play Champions League we are better off having them? Sanchez got a lucky assist, and was poor the rest of the game. Lukaku is injured.

Memphis never worked out, a bit like salah at Chelsea and required game time, if he was that good someone would have snapped him up this summer

Ander Herrera CHOSE to leave United

Di Maria didn't want to be here, and was not played in his position LVG never fancied him

Blind was a player that didn't suit Jose.

I agree they all have reasons for leaving but that's not to say they wouldn't improve us massively at this point. The fact is that no top player will want to be here if we carry on as we currently are. in other words it could be our club that's broken, rather than the 'deadwood' players.

From afar they've all moved on to better things, whilst we have continued our decline.

 

[romufc]

I agree they all have reasons for leaving but that's not to say they wouldn't improve us massively at this point. The fact is that no top player will want to be here if we carry on as we currently are. in other words it could be our club that's broken, rather than the 'deadwood' players.

From afar they've all moved on to better things, whilst we have continued our decline.

We had 3 of them here last season.

I have said this in other threads that it is our club and got slaughtered for saying that. But it is the reality, top top players have come to this football club and not produced.

We seem to make players crap, and I cannot point a finger to why that is.

 

[MUFC OK]

Bump. I think it is now common knowledge that any of the 6 players above would offer us something at this stage and the lunacy of out transfer strategy over a number of years has left us with a squad capable of going down.

 

[-Supreme-]

i'm liking the direction the club has taken this season with the clear-outs, admittedly it may hinder us from getting top 4 but this is necessary in order to have a proper rebuild of this squad.

Next on the list this summer:
- Lingard
- Jones
- Rojo
- Smalling
- Sanchez: Not the end of the world if he stays as he'd still be a good squad option for the striker position and we can prioritise our budget on other areas of the pitch
- Mata

 

[ICHM]

Lingard, Jones, Rojo, Sanchez have to go.

I would keep Mata as a squad player and I would have kept Smalling over Jones or Rojo, but he's nearly 30 and if we get some money back for him, all good.

Jury out on Matic, was crap first half of the season, but appears to have stopped sulking.

 

[crossy1686]

i'm liking the direction the club has taken this season with the clear-outs, admittedly it may hinder us from getting top 4 but this is necessary in order to have a proper rebuild of this squad.

Next on the list this summer:
- Lingard
- Jones
- Rojo
- Smalling
- Sanchez: Not the end of the world if he stays as he'd still be a good squad option for the striker position and we can prioritise our budget on other areas of the pitch
- Mata

Rojo has pretty much gone, they have an option to buy and we pay some of his wages still.
Jones will stay on as back up but Smalling will go.
Mata will stay on one more year as back up.
Lingard will definitely be sold.
We will try to sell Sanchez but struggle to shift him I think.

Not deadwood but Pogba will go this summer also.

Lowering the wage budget is important this summer if we want to free up more funds moving forward.

 

[Bilbo]

i'm liking the direction the club has taken this season with the clear-outs, admittedly it may hinder us from getting top 4 but this is necessary in order to have a proper rebuild of this squad.

Next on the list this summer:
- Lingard
- Jones
- Rojo
- Smalling
- Sanchez: Not the end of the world if he stays as he'd still be a good squad option for the striker position and we can prioritise our budget on other areas of the pitch
- Mata

Agree, but Sanchez has to go. His 20m a season salary will cover the majority of our summer business

 

[Oldyella]

i'm liking the direction the club has taken this season with the clear-outs, admittedly it may hinder us from getting top 4 but this is necessary in order to have a proper rebuild of this squad.

Next on the list this summer:
- Lingard
- Jones
- Rojo
- Smalling
- Sanchez: Not the end of the world if he stays as he'd still be a good squad option for the striker position and we can prioritise our budget on other areas of the pitch
- Mata

Sad to see Mata go, could have been a great signing if we had used him differently and I'm sure hes the ideal pro to have around the squad.

Still think Smalling could do a job, Bailly looked much better next to Maguire than Lindelof and Smalling is a more reliable similar player but its probably time to move on.

 

[Craig Ward]

Players that need to leave still:

Sanchez
Smalling
Rojo
Jones
Lingard
Mata
Matic
Periera
Pogba
Fosu-Mensah


Thats still 10 who have little to no value in the squad.

We obviously arent shifting that many in the summer.

I'd focus this summer on the following:
Smalling
Sanchez
Pogba
Lingard
Rojo

3 on loans currently anyway so no difference to the squad now

Mata/Matic can be squad options and bring experience.
TFM maybe on a loan or to stay as back up
Periera/Jones to be back up only but depending who comes in Periera may well get a fair amount of game time

 

[Loon]

Not sure that's true reallly.

We've had two outstanding managers in our history. They kept winning trophies, so it's natural that we kept faith in them.

Look at the other managers we've had since WW2, and the time they got in the job:

McGuiness - 18 months or thereabouts.
O'Farrell - 18 months.
Docherty - four and a half years.
Sexton - four years.
Atkinson - four years.
Moyes - 10 months.
LVG - 2 years.
Mourinho - two and a half years.

Worth saying that most of those managers either won trophies or challenged for the league during their time at the club. They weren't exactly failures. Plus it was quite normal to stick with a manager for 3-4 years before the Premier League came along.

So, when you look at it, we're really no more or less loyal than any other club. The only time we've really showed loyalty to a failing manager is Fergie for a couple of months in the 89/90 season. Yes we were rewarded spectacularly for that decision, but it hardly fits our overall history.

As an aside, I think it is a damn shame Docherty torpedoed his career when he did (for non-footballing reasons) as he genuinely rebuilt a United side that looked like it was going places. He also had to deal with the incredibly tough George Best issue.

 

[sp_107]

Players that need to leave still:

Sanchez
Smalling
Rojo
Jones
Lingard
Mata
Matic
Periera
Pogba
Fosu-Mensah


Thats still 10 who have little to no value in the squad.

We obviously arent shifting that many in the summer.

I'd focus this summer on the following:
Smalling
Sanchez
Pogba
Lingard
Rojo

3 on loans currently anyway so no difference to the squad now

Mata/Matic can be squad options and bring experience.
TFM maybe on a loan or to stay as back up
Periera/Jones to be back up only but depending who comes in Periera may well get a fair amount of game time

Agreed, this is where we should be shrewd and get rid of average players but on big wages. That should be the first step of the build process.

Pogba(as he wants to leave) /Jones/Rojo/Perrera/Matic/Alexis, total 6 players as a start in this summer window
Lingard/Smalling if possible then Mata ( I think UTD likes to keep him at club in some capacity even after his playing career hence they renewed last time which I think not necessary, I have a feeling he will represent UTD in Spain and act as an ambassador for us. Anyway he got just one more year so I think board seeing him as an experienced player can guide young players).

Once we start the above process and add 4/5 quality players I think we can go back to where we belong.

 

[M16Red]

Players that need to leave still:

Sanchez (350k)
Smalling (80k)
Rojo (80k)
Jones (75k)
Lingard (75k)
Mata (160k)
Matic (120k)
Periera (30k)
Pogba (290k)
Fosu-Mensah (15k)

1.25 Million a week. It's not a small sum...

 

[sp_107]

At least he started ball rolling in the right direction and hope we can look better after next 2 transfer windows.
People can talk about Lukaku but I think his style doesnt suit to us so we shouldn't consider that as a transfer backfired.
Overall I am happy with Ole's transfer policy.

On top of this, I am really impressed with the way he improved players like Fred, AWB (attacking play), Rashford, SMT.

 

[-Supreme-]

Rojo has pretty much gone, they have an option to buy and we pay some of his wages still.
Jones will stay on as back up but Smalling will go.
Mata will stay on one more year as back up.
Lingard will definitely be sold.
We will try to sell Sanchez but struggle to shift him I think.

Not deadwood but Pogba will go this summer also.

Lowering the wage budget is important this summer if we want to free up more funds moving forward.

I'd replace Jones with Tuanzebe and Mata with Gomez, one is always injured and the other can no longer influence games

Great opportunity to get rid of more deadwoods and replace them with our youth products, with only Pereira that has failed to impress when given plenty of chances this season

Young--> Wiliams
Herrera--> Mctominay
Sanchez--> Rashford
Fellaini --> Pereira
Lingard--> Greenwood
Jones--> Tuanzebe
Mata--> Gomes

 

[MikeKing]

Players that need to leave still:

Sanchez
Smalling
Rojo
Jones
Lingard
Mata
Matic
Periera
Pogba
Fosu-Mensah


Thats still 10 who have little to no value in the squad.

We obviously arent shifting that many in the summer.

I'd focus this summer on the following:
Smalling
Sanchez
Pogba
Lingard
Rojo

3 on loans currently anyway so no difference to the squad now

Mata/Matic can be squad options and bring experience.
TFM maybe on a loan or to stay as back up
Periera/Jones to be back up only but depending who comes in Periera may well get a fair amount of game time

We should sell those who contribute next to nothing to the first team first as they are the ones that can be replaced from within. We need to buy replacements for the likes of Pogba, Smalling, Lindelof etc. if we are to sell some of them. I'm not against doing more changes like that if it is strictly necessary like with Pogba now making a mess of himself. That might be something to work on but besides that I really think we need to prioritise getting rid of: Jones, Lingard, Mata, Rojo, Sanchez. They do feck all. Matic and Pereira should leave if we can get a proper fee for them, but the guys before them just can't stick around anymore, not for any reason really.

 

[elmo]

Rojo has pretty much gone, they have an option to buy and we pay some of his wages still.
Jones will stay on as back up but Smalling will go.
Mata will stay on one more year as back up.
Lingard will definitely be sold.
We will try to sell Sanchez but struggle to shift him I think.

Not deadwood but Pogba will go this summer also.

Lowering the wage budget is important this summer if we want to free up more funds moving forward.

Getting anything for Lingard would be impressive considering his wage demands that he'll be asking after hiring Mino as his agent.

 

[SweetRightFoot]

Players that need to leave still:

Sanchez
Smalling
Rojo
Jones
Lingard
Mata
Matic
Periera
Pogba
Fosu-Mensah


Thats still 10 who have little to no value in the squad.

We obviously arent shifting that many in the summer.

I'd focus this summer on the following:
Smalling
Sanchez
Pogba
Lingard
Rojo

3 on loans currently anyway so no difference to the squad now

Mata/Matic can be squad options and bring experience.
TFM maybe on a loan or to stay as back up
Periera/Jones to be back up only but depending who comes in Periera may well get a fair amount of game time

In a few years (hopefully not more) we will remember this time as the 'Dead Woodward' years. Ole's doing a good job of clearing them out, long may it continue.

 

[USREDEVIL]

If Jones is actually healthy during the summer we ought to send him packing asap.
Get rid: Jones, Lingard, Matic, Sanchez, Rojo.

Keep Smalling if possible. Pereira and Mata are decent squad players. I'm still Pogba in.

 

[el3mel]

If Jones is actually healthy during the summer we ought to send him packing asap.
Get rid: Jones, Lingard, Matic, Sanchez, Rojo.

Keep Smalling if possible. Pereira and Mata are decent squad players. I'm still Pogba in.

Don't get people who want Matic out. He's a great option to have. Hopefully we keep him for 1 or 2 more years.