Am I remembering wrong or is Palermo the club that had a really insane owner?
I’m highly sceptical as it is, there’s no good will or faith to be had in our recruitment process or department until they prove otherwise. Numerous deals should have been wrapped up and good to go before the window opened, at least then it is more palatable to be jousting with Barcelona, but as evidenced, we are not running as we should be, as we need to be. After all, we are the club starting right at the back of the starting grid with the most to do and the biggest need to aid the manager - we *need* our preseason to be exceptional with no bumps in the road and all our players training and bonding together, settled and purely focused on football. There is nothing revelatory in that, it’s common sense.
A) Clubs can negotiate with other clubs, players, agents at any time. Transfers just can't officially be registered until the window opens.
Glad someone highlighted point D because definitely seems to get lost
I sincerely hope my sarcasm was picked up on. I thought “enlightened souls” would have given it away
Completely agree with this. Our rivals have all signed a couple of targets already (City, Liverpool). FDJ is important but the lack of progress on other areas is concerning. Obviously no one truly knows what’s going on but it is clear that we will need to pay premium to land some players we want. Just guessing, but it sure does look like our budget is not as good as advertised and management will want to sell a couple of more players before we buy, notwithstanding the departure of senior players. Not a good state to be in. Hope I’m wrong though.
Great idea, we can continue with Make a Wish McFred Free style football and then half way into the season we can work out how to make a proper footballer like De Jong fit into a system that we haven't worked on at all.
Should have sold him last year, but granted it was still under Woodward’s watch. I am willing to give the new exec a chance but if they dally over FDJ for another month and haven’t signed anyone else then we know nothing has changed.
NO matter what RR said about needing wholesale buys, there is no way that we will buy 5 players this summer. I absolutely do not believe that the Glazers will spend that much money with no CL.
Let's spell it out specifically as well. Players that were at one point in their career world class or Elite are leaving...alongside some other whatever.
The few millions matter to the Glazers. That’s what it looks like from the outside anyway.
That's what is required. Also Glazers most frugal summer's are actually when we make CL, it's usually not making it that gets them spending, especially in new manager's first window.
Whilst I completely agree with the first part about getting your business done early, there have been some big changes at the club with regards to senior appointments (manager, football director, CEO - with the latter not wasting time in getting rid of some dead wood) - all this will have a huge impact on this summer's transfer window and it will take time for us to see how the changes made will work. I think you're wrong with the second part in that Arnold is seen to be making the changes we have been looking for, hence we have learnt from the mistakes made during the Woodward era.
Spot on.
You could be right. Whichever way you look at it, it’s June 16th so any meltdown reactions are uncalled for.
This is a crucial point I don't think in any other scenario things would seem as bad but there is an urgency for Murtough / Arnold to sort things out the club have a new manager who has a philosophical approach therefore pre season is an important venture for the players to be embedded with the coaching and requirements of their use.
Mate like I said elsewhere, I would be very happy to be proven wrong. Just hoping it’s a slow start but we can’t afford another mad rush at the end of the window. ETH needs a full complement this summer to bed-in as we all agree.
Correct. Another day nearly down.
This is a key one for me. ETH made mention of the club coming in 2nd the year before in his introductory presser. Makes me think that was Glazers/board narrative to him. From then I've had a feeling we are probably getting a Moyes-esque first window. The fact that apparently any transfer plans have been put to the side because de Jong might be available just doesn't sit right. Now maybe it's a case of ETH going to the board and saying if he's a available he would be top of his list by a lot but at that point if the board is gonna go for him, they gotta get him for ETH. Can't dither lose out on him and then turn around and say "we tried, now make due with this guy you probably don't rate but our scouts do" (see: Fred/Mourinho, DVB/OGS)
Him, Ramsey etc all highly rated fullbacks getting picked up the better sides. Hope we get Malacia but things have gone quiet on that front
ETH has been sold "this squad finished 2nd previous season" dream. We need a lot of new players in many different areas, he'll realize it over the course of season. Right now, we seem to aiming to bring 3 players in and it makes sense given our budget.
I expect we've been focussed on trying to get the big financial deal (De Jong) done, so that we then have an idea how much budget we have for the other positions.
I doubt it. Probably after a versatile forward who can play through the middle and out wide. We probably don't have budget for more than one attacking player.
