Times: Finding buyers for the dead wood is Manchester United’s biggest challenge this window

#07

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People still confident that uneeded players will be moving on this summer?

The club's valuations seem to be putting off potential buyers.

We are like a man selling a mint condition robin reliant who thinks, just cos its mint condition, we'll get big money for it. Ignoring the obvious issue that, as it's a robin reliant, nobody wants to pay much for it regardless of its condition.
 

Bogga

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I was impressed earlier on when we got rid of Sanchez and some other players prior to him. But we're still stuck with Jones, Smalling, Rojo, Lingard, Pereira and Mata. What happened?
 

NJM78

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I was impressed earlier on when we got rid of Sanchez and some other players prior to him. But we're still stuck with Jones, Smalling, Rojo, Lingard, Pereira and Mata. What happened?
We pay Z list players A list wages. We seem to have buggered up Smalling deal somehow also so unless we lower our values or give them away like Sanchez, they will all continue to be here and generally be useless.
 

#07

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We pay Z list players A list wages. We seem to have buggered up Smalling deal somehow also so unless we lower our values or give them away like Sanchez, they will all continue to be here and generally be useless.
Yup. Look how long we held onto Darmian thinking we could get good money for him. Ended up caving and letting him go to Parma for €3m.

We should have learned from that. Instead we have only moved one player on this summer, achieved via a pay off.

The people in charge of negotiating our incomings and outgoings just don't know the market well enough to be able to value our squad players. They pay them too well and they think they are worth much more than they are. This reflects the fact that people like Matt Judge don't know much about football. So they can't see that wanting big bucks for Lingard and Pereira is a pipe dream.
 

TheMod

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Cengiz Under going to Leicester for €3m loan + €24m obligation to buy.

Hopefully now that means Roma have funds to buy Smalling at our valuation
 

Nickosaur

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Cengiz Under going to Leicester for €3m loan + €24m obligation to buy.

Hopefully now that means Roma have funds to buy Smalling at our valuation
That €24m presumably won't be available until end of next season no?
 

TheMod

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That €24m presumably won't be available until end of next season no?
Yes but in accounting terms they can budget for it as a next year incoming and balance books for FFP

To be fair if Roma increase their offer with €3m initial loan payment they have received from Under I reckon it would prob secure a transfer, let alone the money coming in end of season.
 

Nickosaur

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Yes but in accounting terms they can budget for it as a next year incoming and balance books for FFP

To be fair if Roma increase their offer with €3m initial loan payment they have received from Under I reckon it would prob secure a transfer, let alone the money coming in end of season.
Ah fair enough.
 

RDCR07

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We haven’t sold one deadwood player this window and that is more embarrassing than not signing Sancho.
 

Salt Bailly

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Rojo, Jones, Lingard and Romero are the main 4 that need to go.

Pereira can do a job in the few dead rubbers we get in the cups and occasionally the league, while mata only has a year left on his contract and is clearly being groomed for a coaching/ambassadorial role.
 

Offside

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Why the hell did we give Jones a new contact? fecking bizarre.
 

Sandikan

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Phil Jones is on contract until 2023 with the classic "option" for another year.
Knowing us that'll be either side can extend it.

Imagine if we renew that in a couple of years, having seen him play his customary 10 games a season.
 

Brightonian

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I was impressed earlier on when we got rid of Sanchez and some other players prior to him. But we're still stuck with Jones, Smalling, Rojo, Lingard, Pereira and Mata. What happened?
Well to be fair our failure to get in the two or three more players (on top of VDB) that we should have means I'm not keen for us to ship quite as much dead wood out as we might have. If no-one else comes in I'd hang on to Mata and Smalling at the very least there. After all there's going to be a season's lapse before any more youngsters are likely to come through - this won't be another Greenwood+Williams+McT season.
 

dove

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Well to be fair our failure to get in the two or three more players (on top of VDB) that we should have means I'm not keen for us to ship quite as much dead wood out as we might have. If no-one else comes in I'd hang on to Mata and Smalling at the very least there. After all there's going to be a season's lapse before any more youngsters are likely to come through - this won't be another Greenwood+Williams+McT season.
But that's the problem. Getting rid of them would allow us to sign other players cause it would free up wages budget and add some money towards new buys. Now we are stuck with that shite.
 

Ali Dia

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Yup. Look how long we held onto Darmian thinking we could get good money for him. Ended up caving and letting him go to Parma for €3m.

We should have learned from that. Instead we have only moved one player on this summer, achieved via a pay off.

The people in charge of negotiating our incomings and outgoings just don't know the market well enough to be able to value our squad players. They pay them too well and they think they are worth much more than they are. This reflects the fact that people like Matt Judge don't know much about football. So they can't see that wanting big bucks for Lingard and Pereira is a pipe dream.
And the length of time he overstayed here we probably payed him 3 times that in wages. Stupid contracts for stupid signings.
 
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Well to be fair our failure to get in the two or three more players (on top of VDB) that we should have means I'm not keen for us to ship quite as much dead wood out as we might have. If no-one else comes in I'd hang on to Mata and Smalling at the very least there. After all there's going to be a season's lapse before any more youngsters are likely to come through - this won't be another Greenwood+Williams+McT season.
It’s clearly much more difficult this year. I expect the number of transfers to drop quite significantly compared to previous windows.

Clubs aren’t taking risks. Furthermore, we might actually see a drop in wages as a result of this, which doesn’t help when trying to move on highly paid players.
 

Brightonian

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But that's the problem. Getting rid of them would allow us to sign other players cause it would free up wages budget and add some money towards new buys. Now we are stuck with that shite.
I guess so. Seems a risky game to play at this stage, though: sell them nice and early to make sure you definitely get in a replacement with those freed-up wages, or don't sell them at all. With regards to Mata and Smalling, that is. Some of the others should be ditched regardless.
 

amolbhatia50k

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Why the hell did we give Jones a new contact? fecking bizarre.
That has to be the strangest contract renewal I've ever seen. With some others, you'd disagree but could see the logic the club was going for. The Jones renewal is an act of charity and stupidity.
 

bosnian_red

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We didnt sell him though, we terminated his contract with a pay off right?
No we didn't pay him off, thought the most accurate reports were that they basically picked up his contract without a transfer fee. Basically terminated his contract for them to then pay him a specific package over however long. So sold without a fee. Still works!
 

RedDevilCanuck

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West Ham or Everton don't want Rojo?

He seems perfect - big name, getting on a bit, high wages etc.
 

King Andow

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Phil Jones is on contract until 2023 with the classic "option" for another year.
Knowing us that'll be either side can extend it.

Imagine if we renew that in a couple of years, having seen him play his customary 10 games a season.
Same with Pereira. Imagine a guy that can't hack it against Rochdale, Tranmere and Colchester earning a four-year contract from Manchester United, he's luckier than Lingard. At least they won't play much, I hope.
 

Paul_Scholes18

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That has to be the strangest contract renewal I've ever seen. With some others, you'd disagree but could see the logic the club was going for. The Jones renewal is an act of charity and stupidity.
I think Jones had been fit and played well for a decent spell when we gave that one under OGS. Then after that the injuries started to come and his form declined like the rest of the team.
 

pratyush_utd

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I think Jones had been fit and played well for a decent spell when we gave that one under OGS. Then after that the injuries started to come and his form declined like the rest of the team.
Yeah but we could have waited for some more time. It's not like clubs were lining up for him
 

Paul_Scholes18

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Yeah but we could have waited for some more time. It's not like clubs were lining up for him
True. I don't know why they rushed to get it done. It was the same with getting OGS on a permanent deal. Also so many years added.
With his injury record they could have reduced salary if he played less than a number of games or something too.
 

Bilbo

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Can definitely see Rojo, Smalling and Romero getting sold before the close. All three are still good players and will hopefully bring in somewhere in the region of £30-35m.

I think the club will end up keeping Lingard as a squad option, but would also sell if an offer came in. Same with Dalot. Mata is in his last year so I'd be amazed if he didn't see that out.

Pereira and Jones are the problem children. I just dont see anyone being interested enough to put the financial package together that would be needed.
 

starman

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With Wolves losing Doherty maybe Dalot becomes a option for them, he seems like a perfect replacment in their wingback system.
In fact i am growing on the idea of Traore as a alterative Sancho, maybe 50m plus Dalot would be enough to tempt them....
 

Blood Mage

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Nobody is going to pay actual money for Jones and Rojo. We're stuck with them till their contracts run down IMO. We have a shot at selling Smalling, Mata, Dalot, Pereira and Lingard but I doubt any of them could be shifted for more than £10m.
 

Blood Mage

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With Wolves losing Doherty maybe Dalot becomes a option for them, he seems like a perfect replacment in their wingback system.
In fact i am growing on the idea of Traore as a alterative Sancho, maybe 50m plus Dalot would be enough to tempt them....
Dalot isn't good enough for Wolves, he's only slightly above Championship level.
 

snowkarl

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Nobody is going to pay actual money for Jones and Rojo. We're stuck with them till their contracts run down IMO. We have a shot at selling Smalling, Mata, Dalot, Pereira and Lingard but I doubt any of them could be shifted for more than £10m.
You're absolutely right about Jones & Rojo, they're both useless and totally crocked on top of it. However, no one is paying actual money for Mata or Pereira, let's get real here.

Lingard is beyond bad but I guess we could get a few mil from West Brom or something, but they might not even want him.

Smalling is the only one with actual value. 10-13m imo.
 

Revan

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You're absolutely right about Jones & Rojo, they're both useless and totally crocked on top of it. However, no one is paying actual money for Mata or Pereira, let's get real here.

Lingard is beyond bad but I guess we could get a few mil from West Brom or something, but they might not even want him.

Smalling is the only one with actual value. 10-13m imo.
Pereira is on reasonable wages, so I think should be straightforward to ship him for a few millions. Mata (160k/week), Jones and Rojo are unsellable even if we allow them to go for free. Their wages are totally disproportional to their ability which means that no one will go near them.

Smalling, Lingard, and Romero might be sold if we decrease our evaluation for them.
 

kafta

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Im thinking smalling will be staying as it doesn't look like we might be buying a CB this window. If we do, im sure we'd find a way to sell him.

As for the others: Jones, Lingard, Perreira, Mata, Dalot, Rojo... we might be stuck with them till their contracts start running out.

I can see Mata, Rojo and Dalot moving on for low fees, but not the other three.