Transfers: Where do you stand?

charlenefan

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Pay whatever it takes to get who the club wants even if it means paying over the odds

or

Refuse to dragged into bidding wars or paying over the odds and happy to walk away and move onto more affordable targets

I mean it's not our money either way but what stance would you prefer the club take?
 

GreatDane

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Pay whatever it takes to get who the club wants even if it means paying over the odds

or

Refuse to dragged into bidding wars or paying over the odds and happy to walk away and move onto more affordable targets

I mean it's not our money either way but what stance would you prefer the club take?
Ideally I want affordable targets, hungry players.
But seeing the mess we're in, I'm afraid we need to pay extra for the right players to lift us up - Ten Hags targets of course.
When we are back in CL hopefully next year, then we can add the "lesser" targets of the puzzle to lift us further.
 

Leftback99

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We need too many players to be paying over the odds for anyone and our squad is so poor that there should be plenty of alternative targets.

Read through recent transfer threads and you'd find people that would have paid £120m for Sancho, £60m for Varane, £30m for Telles.
 

bosnian_red

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Bit of both. If they're a player like Sancho, De Jong, or tchouameni, Camavinga, Haaland, etc where you are absolutely convinced that they are stars, that they are perfect fit, and they have elite potential and are at a good age... Then you pay whatever is required, IMO. These are players who in one way or another, showed themselves to be quality players already as well as having the elite potential, while being exactly what we lack.

If they aren't at a good age, or there are some notable risks, or they haven't quite shown a level of confidence that you can feel like they are certs to make it.. Then better to be smart about the fee and not be held ransom. I would put Darwin, Vlahović among others in this category.
 

C'est Moi Cantona

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Pay whatever it takes to get who the club wants even if it means paying over the odds

or

Refuse to dragged into bidding wars or paying over the odds and happy to walk away and move onto more affordable targets

I mean it's not our money either way but what stance would you prefer the club take?
Pay whatever it take.

We need top players, and right now we have very little going for us other than money to get them here.

We can use the old, 'don't pay over the odds', 'no value in the market', and 'if he doesn't want to come here don't force him' , when we have built ourselves up again.
 

sullydnl

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It's context dependent.

If you're a side like City or Liverpool, you have the luxury of being able to overspend to secure your prime targets as there are a limited number of positions you're actually looking to improve at any given time. Value matters less.

If you're a side like us now or Liverpool at the start of their rebuild, you need to be more efficient with your spending in order to expedite the rebuild process. Because the amount you overspend could be the difference between upgrading another key position in your starting eleven or not. And when you're starting from a low base you get quicker improvement overall by hitting those multiple positions.

That doesn't mean you don't spend big money on certain key players. Liverpool broke the transfer record for both a goalkeeper and a defender for example, which we would likely have described as overspend. But they should be exceptions rather than the rule and you have to absolutely nail those signings.

In our case FDJ is the only player we've been linked with I'd be comfortable spending massive money on. Because aside from being an obviously talented player in an area we're weak, he comes with the added security of his past experience with ETH. For someone like Nunez on the other hand, I'd sooner let Liverpool overpay for him while we try to get the absolute most we can from our resources this summer. He's not the sort of big money risk we should be taking right now.
 

Abraxas

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I think a bit more sophistication is needed than having a black and white approach to every transfer. I think both of those strategies if taken to their extreme could end up with unfortunate results. You could end up missing out on a player that would have made a huge difference over 5 or 10 million. Or you set yourselves up as fools in the market.

I think you have to have some limit, but ultimately you also have to know what your recruitment team really want, and what the alternatives are. Sometimes moving to the next target isn't a big deal, but for other positions it really might be.
 

MikeUpNorth

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There are very, very few players worth breaking the budget for. A high percentage of expensive transfers flop and it's essentially unpredictable. The great teams are built with sensible and patient transfer business.
 

moses

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I have no idea either, yet.
Couldn't care less if its the right player.

It's all about the player. 75 million for VVD elevated the team but 80 million for Harry was like attaching a millstone.
 

Von Mistelroum

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I think it's ultimately irrelevant. We have a very small budget for a club of our size and far more so considering the amount of players we need. We can't compete (for example) with Liverpool for someone like Nunez because they have more money to spend and crucially not as many holes in their squad to spread it between.

We have 4-6 first team players we should be looking to add at least, and that's just for starters really. Our budget is reportedly £120m so we can't go buying a Nunez for £70-80m because we (much more) urgently need Central midfielders and full backs... And a CB if at all possible. We also need at least one winger and possibly a GK if DDG can't adapt. Realistically we might be able to buy 2-3 of these third window IF we can make some very shrewd deals. This rules out trying to compete with other big clubs for signings.
 

K Stand Knut

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Pay whatever it take.

We need top players, and right now we have very little going for us other than money to get them here.

We can use the old, 'don't pay over the odds', 'no value in the market', and 'if he doesn't want to come here don't force him' , when we have built ourselves up again.
 

Solius

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If it's definitely the right target you pay for it.

Problem is we've identified the wrong targets in the past and then still paid the large amount.
 

K Stand Knut

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Pay whatever it take.

We need top players, and right now we have very little going for us other than money to get them here.

We can use the old, 'don't pay over the odds', 'no value in the market', and 'if he doesn't want to come here don't force him' , when we have built ourselves up again.
Worst idea in the world.

The main reason we are where we are!!

Would be stupidity to sign any player who doesn’t want to come.

To specifically answer the OP, get the players who the manager wants, ideally with a mixture of paying what we have to and not!
 

jeepers

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Pay whatever for ETH’s first choice targets. Not anybody else’s targets, ETH’s targets.
 

AaronRedDevil

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You’d have to be an idiot to pay 80m for Nunez. There will always be cheaper and better options. They just have to know where to look. Unfortunately our scouts suck. It’s stupid to pay 80m for “potential”. It rarely works out.
 

Mainoldo

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To not be afraid to move to play B. Isn’t that the whole point of a good scouting transfer committee?

City tried to sign Maguire. Was too expensive they signed Ruben Diaz. I’m pretty sure targets can be number 1 based on personal attributes and settling in process rather than ability anyway.
 

Jeppers7

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Purely in terms of finance….pay what it takes. Get it done because the benefits are on the pitch.
 

Josep Dowling

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Anyone saying pay what it takes clearly doesn’t have a clue about keeping the club afloat at the same time. There are plenty of players out there that could improve the squad. Can find at least 4/5 players in each league better than Dalot, Telles and McTominay that we could obtain. Not every player has to fit the mold. For example I would have taken Perisic for a season to bolster our wing options. Do we really want Martial being our bench option for LW?

Too much is taken into being the right age, putting 6 years on their contract etc. We are in a mess spending big money on players at the right age and when they have massively flopped we can’t get rid because of the contracts given to the player.
 

Forevergiggs1

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Depends on the player. If we're willing to pay 70m for FDJ but Barca want 80m and we pull out then we're idiots. There's a time to play hardball on transfers. Players like him isn't the time.
 

m1tch

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Pay whatever it takes to get who the club wants even if it means paying over the odds

or

Refuse to dragged into bidding wars or paying over the odds and happy to walk away and move onto more affordable targets

I mean it's not our money either way but what stance would you prefer the club take?
When it comes to transfer fees, being the richest club in the world will mean 99 times out of 100 we'll over pay on the transfer fee, being in the position we are isn't going to help as we can't get away with saying "there's no value" and sticking with what we have.

Furthermore, when it comes to player wages and agent fees, with the club where it is, option 1 is going to be the only option. The only time it won't be is when signing a young prospect that's generally gone under the radar of other clubs (which must be getting rarer and rarer these days).

The quality of players we need will have offers from clubs in much better positions than us, we can only beat their offers financially, just like City and Chelsea had to do before they reached the top.

We've wasted the money through signing the wrong players not by over paying them. Overpaying (on player wages) is the cost of the underinvestment when we were at the top. We've appointed the wrong managers and backed the wrong managers in the crucial 3-4 years after SAF. Rebuilding from there has been as difficult and expensive as it's proved, and will continue to be until we overpay for the right players.
 

sdb4884

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It isn't July 1 yet but it just feels like any other transfer window, going after the wrong targets like Frenkie de jong and Declan Rice for different reasons. Instead of being smarter and looking at other targets we seem to be waiting until August to sign anybody. I realise that likely won't be the case as we have lost more players this time around but we should have had some work done by now.
 

davidmichael

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I’d rather we target players to fit ETH’s tactics and system more than anything, if ETH wants De Jong then it’ll be because he fits the system ETH wants but at the same time if ETH wants to use a stop gap who costs a minimal fee because the player he wants isn’t available then I trust his judgement.

Simply spending big or stretching our budget to bring in multiple players isn’t the right approach either way, we need quality which costs a lot and we need a lot which will cost even more but we need players who play how ETH wants so if it means a season where top four is our main target then so be it as the job ETH has is fecking massive and won’t be instant success.
 

Okey

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At the window, peeping in.

I'll get me coat...
 

FreakyJim

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Avoid at all cost.

We are clearly awful at them, it's time to stop wasting money. Free transfers only.
 

marktan

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100% the more affordable targets to build a squad.

Once you have those you can sign best in class players, like VVD and Allison at Liverpool.

The problem is the scouting. We get most of our £40m signings wrong, and so we spend £80m on a player every summer in the hopes of a guaranteed success but we scout badly for that too.

I think a large part of the problem is we give too much power to the manager - Van Gaal, Mourinho, Ole and now Ten Haag have had massive say in the signings and have largely signed the players they wanted - a legacy of SAF. The problem is the modern coach has too many demands and can't be an expert scout too. The best transfer teams these days delegate most of that responsibility to a recruitment department - see Liverpool and Real, or Brighton for a lower budget example. Occasionally the manager's recruits can work - see Moyes at West Ham (ironically the one manager we didn't let make many signings) - but largely it'll have a far low hit rate than those at other teams. How is the best we could come up with was Maguire, AWB and Sancho? Largely because theyre English and Ole would've known them.

It's part of the reason why the links to FDJ, Timber, Anthony etc worries me - too much power to the manager which reeks of a weak scouting department despite all the talk of a shakeup in the higher ups.
 

RoyH1

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I’d give ETH the chance to pick the one player he absolutely cannot do without on the market this window. That guy we can overspend on.
The rest I’d be a lot more set on not going over market value
 

RedCoffee

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If we need 4 or 5 decent players to progress I'd spend 40m max per player and get them in. To go for 2 80m players is pointless and will leave too many holes next season
 

MrBest

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I wouldn't pay above 50m unless that player is a hungry talented star who cares about football rather than fame plus its a vital position. Personally, De Jong is in that frame but Nunez would not be. I'm not saying Nunez is a bad player but 100m for a guy that has had one season at a club that is very good at inflating transfer values (felix) is not good business. That 100m buys two players and in the present, we need a lot of new players. Maybe in 3 or 4 years we could afford a 100m player once a season, but right now, affordable players who are hungry to win and improve are top of the list. Who they are, im no scout.
 

MrEleson

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Anyone saying pay what it takes clearly doesn’t have a clue about keeping the club afloat at the same time. There are plenty of players out there that could improve the squad. Can find at least 4/5 players in each league better than Dalot, Telles and McTominay that we could obtain. Not every player has to fit the mold. For example I would have taken Perisic for a season to bolster our wing options. Do we really want Martial being our bench option for LW?

Too much is taken into being the right age, putting 6 years on their contract etc. We are in a mess spending big money on players at the right age and when they have massively flopped we can’t get rid because of the contracts given to the player.
Can find about 10+ players in each league better than those guys.
 

foolsgold

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We should target the type of player that we need to fit into a role in the system.

There's unlikely to be a meaningful difference in quality between number 1 on the list and number 5, it's all about playing to the system and executing the tasks.

No more expensive disjointed superstars, all about the team.
 

Belisarius

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Pay whatever it takes to get who the club wants even if it means paying over the odds

or

Refuse to dragged into bidding wars or paying over the odds and happy to walk away and move onto more affordable targets

I mean it's not our money either way but what stance would you prefer the club take?
Refuse to be dragged into bidding wars. We need hungry players! Get rid of the bad vibes, low effort guys currently in the first team and be prepared for a season or two of playing with youngsters or low cost hungry players. The results might be bad. But, it will be a team the fans can get behind because the effort will be there. And it will re-set our reputation for over-paying so that in a year or two we might once again get players at the same rate as everyone else. We also need to re-set our wage structure so that when we miss-fire on an acquisition, we can sell the player on reasonably easily.
 

Bondi77

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First and foremost the players we bring to the club have to have the physical attributes to play in the Premier League in their position so no slow wingers, no slow cowardly defenders that are shit in the air, no slow lazy midfielders with shit technique and once we sort that out we have the basics of a good team.
 

mitchmouse

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Some here saying we need too many players to pay over the odds, I'd say we are in such a mess that we should pay what it takes to get who we want a long as the targets are sensible i.e. if we really want Nunez then we have to go all out to get him (I've never seen him play so can't comment on this individual case). The other way, we'll end up with pretty much the same XI from last season and only disaster lies on that path