Focussing on one signing at a time

I don't think it's true at all. We wouldn't have signed Varane starting from 0 after Sancho's transfer. There will be lot of ground work that gets done.

It is not true. We have signed multiple players at the same time. Even last season we signed Facundo, Diallo and Cavani at roughly the same time. Schneiderlin and Schweinsteiger before. Herrera and Shaw before that.

I think when it comes to very big transfers that likely require the top decision makers to get heavily involved, we might go for one at a time, but that doesn’t mean that we are not talking with the other players. It is widely known that we were talking with Morata and Lukaku’s camps at the same time for example.

Journos who say these bullshit knows feck all. To be fair, for the most part journos don’t know anything more than the clubs/agents want them to know so for the most part they are just making guesses. And when there is not much to guess, they fantasize these ridiculous stories.

We definitely don't just focus on one signing at a time. Truth is, journalists don't even know what is going on behind the scenes half the time. They either make it up or get wind of something quite late. As @roonster09 said, there's no way we only started talking to Varane's representatives after Sancho's transfer. We'd have been talking to them at the same time, and it could quite possibly be the case with others such as, Neves, Rice, Camavinga, Trippier, etc.

I think Sancho and Varane probably had a lot of overlap but past them was probably only some preliminary talks I'd guess.

Pogue Mahone said:

This gets mentioned constantly when United’s transfer strategy is discussed in the press. “Having secured x, they are now going to focus on y”. The obvious response is to take the piss and wonder how shit at their job they must be to be unable to handle more than one negotiation at the same time. And/or assume the journalists are talking bollox.

But when it gets mentioned this often, surely there has to be some substance to what they say?

Can anyone come up with any rational reason why a club must deal with multiple transfers sequentially rather than in parallel?

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I think for huge moves like Varane and Sancho there's some truth to it as in they'll want to speak to Ole, Maquire, Woodward etc. before deciding. We've often heard stories from the past that a manager flew somewhere to talk to them etc. There's a bit wooing to be done so to say, and everyone only has so much time on their hands given other responsibilities. I don't think it's down to legal department not being able to produce 2 contracts at the same time.

Money could be a factor , surely? We don't have unlimited budget and every transfer depends on how much is left ?

Have you considered club sources are maybe given instructions to only talk to journalists about one signing at a time?

roonster09 said:

I don't think it's true at all. We wouldn't have signed Varane starting from 0 after Sancho's transfer. There will be lot of ground work that gets done.

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Pretty sure it said we had contact for Varane back in June. There’s nothing to the basis we only work on one transfer at a time.

They normally work on many transfers at the same time, both for key signings we want to get in as soon as possible, as well as backup options, potential future prospects for academy or to keep showing our interest for approaching them in a future window.

However there is a certain amount of truth to it when it comes to marquee signings. In that certain roles or specific players will have the highest priority for us. And depending on the final price of that transfer it will likely affect what else we can do in this window to stay within the budget.

Once we got a good price for Sancho we knew we likely had money to spend on both a CB and Mid instead of prioritizing one of them. We wanted a CB most so went for the best we could get. Now it looks like we got a decent price there as well. So we can put the focus on a Mid, that even with just a smallish outgoing sale we can likely afford a pretty decent Mid due to how the the transfers for Sancho and Varane has ended up.

But at the same time we're showing interest for Trippier and possibly other RB's that we could maybe bring in later in the window. While also courting several CF's to bring one in next year.


TLDR: We work on multiple transfers all the time, but for certain ones we can't step on the gas and pull the trigger until we know how much is left of our budget.

We put our first offer to Varane in March.


Are we talking about actual negotiations? Because that’s like the very last stage of a transfer and if it’s unlikely we will reach that point in two transfer sagas at the same time.

I think its tricky to do more than one at a time, i'm sure other conversations are on-going and there's lots of discussions running in parallel but i dont think the detail is in progress at the same time.

I always equate it to buying a major asset in a business, the legal work that goes into something like that is phenomenal and its hard enough managing that alongside your day job, but doing two at a time is when mistakes happen. Transfers now are a huge legal process, and i imagine the financial, legal and commercial work that goes into it is huge.

Pogue Mahone said:

This gets mentioned constantly when United’s transfer strategy is discussed in the press. “Having secured x, they are now going to focus on y”. The obvious response is to take the piss and wonder how shit at their job they must be to be unable to handle more than one negotiation at the same time. And/or assume the journalists are talking bollox.

But when it gets mentioned this often, surely there has to be some substance to what they say?

Can anyone come up with any rational reason why a club must deal with multiple transfers sequentially rather than in parallel?

Click to expand...

I suspect that at any point, various discussions are going on regarding various players, but in any business the decision makers and those who will thrash out any deal when push comes to shove, and can actually sign off on it are limited in number.

I suspect Murtough (liaising with other club functions) takes the lead and once a deal gets to a certain stage, will focus on that deal to get it done. The legal and contractual side of it all is complex and it's not just about agreeing a figure for the club and wages for the player. You've got rights issues, structure of payments, bonuses etc. all to consider, and I bet a load of other issues. The player will also be getting legal and tax advice which may then cause issues which need to be resolved. It's more complicated to get a deal done that I suspect a lot of people think.

You can’t buy player B unless you’ve definitely agreed a price for player A.

It’s nonsense we do one at a time, all the actual players we are trying to sign are worked on constantly.

Like with Varane, by all accounts we’ve been working on that for months, but as soon as the price for Jadon was agreed the Varane deal can then be accelerated and get over the line.

You have to know what your working with within your budget.

It’s a myth.

We’ve been speaking to Sancho for over a year, made contact with Varane in June and have also been working on a Trippier deal if reports are to be believed.

Looks like we are in touch with some midfielders too.

Pogue Mahone said:

This gets mentioned constantly when United’s transfer strategy is discussed in the press. “Having secured x, they are now going to focus on y”. The obvious response is to take the piss and wonder how shit at their job they must be to be unable to handle more than one negotiation at the same time. And/or assume the journalists are talking bollox.

But when it gets mentioned this often, surely there has to be some substance to what they say?

Can anyone come up with any rational reason why a club must deal with multiple transfers sequentially rather than in parallel?

Click to expand...

Its financial. Of course we will be in discussions at some level on a number of players but once a signing gets to a certain point then the money men will want/need to know the particulars of the deal before we can reach the final stages on another potential transfer.

I can only imagine how chaotic the final two days of a transfer window are if clubs are still doing business. I'd wager a high percentage of clubs financial problems can be traced back to poor decision making in that period.

roonster09 said:

I don't think it's true at all. We wouldn't have signed Varane starting from 0 after Sancho's transfer. There will be lot of ground work that gets done.

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Groundwork started in march according to lackhurst.

Pogue Mahone said:

This gets mentioned constantly when United’s transfer strategy is discussed in the press. “Having secured x, they are now going to focus on y”. The obvious response is to take the piss and wonder how shit at their job they must be to be unable to handle more than one negotiation at the same time. And/or assume the journalists are talking bollox.

But when it gets mentioned this often, surely there has to be some substance to what they say?

Can anyone come up with any rational reason why a club must deal with multiple transfers sequentially rather than in parallel?

Click to expand...

The only rational reason would be for managing the budget. If Varane costs more or less than expected it may effect the next signing. Once a deal is done and they know the exact timings of payments then they can know what’s affordable and when payments need to be staggered.

It’s a myth created to bash the club.

More like people can only focus on one thing at a time and the media reflects that.

It's obviously not true, but one signing will affect another signing.

For example, we might be chasing a RW, CB and CM, and we might have a 1st choice RW, CB and CM in mind, but couldn't sign them all. So we might have to sign the 2nd or 3rd choice CM, depending on the cost of the RW and/or CB that we sign.

Possibly due to marketing? I imagine much of the groundwork gets down in tandem but angling it to maximise interest via media is a tactical decision to spread positive interest over time. I can't imagine its in most clubs interest to announce signings of two big players on the same day anymore.