What do we still need? Aka The never ending story

Would love to see a solid partner for Licha who is consistently available. Just thinking of the perfect type of partner, and as much as a I hate to say it, John Terry would be great. Who's the closest player to JT today?
 
P1. Build a team around Garnacho and he's best on the left so I'd sell Rashford.

P2. Build a spine around Mainoo and Hojlund. Mainoo is wasted as a 6 long term, so I'd keep Casemiro, sign another 6 and sign Fergusson as a rotational striker for Hojlund

P3. Develop a core of young talented players, preferably English. All out for Cole Palmer with £90m bid.

P4. Improve culture by getting shot of big earners who deliver little


Big sales £240m
- £90m Rashford
- £70m Sancho + Greenwood
- £40m Maguire
- £40m Antony

Big Buys £290m
- £80m Fergusson
- £90m Palmer
- £40m Haidara or Fofana
- £80m Silva

--------------------- Hojlund / Fergusson ---------------------
Garnacho -------------------------------------------------- Palmer / Amad
------------------------- Bruno / Mount----------------------------------
--------- Mainoo / McT -------- Case / Fofana ----------

Shaw ---------- Licha --------------- Silva ----------------- Dalot
 
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Would love to see a solid partner for Licha who is consistently available. Just thinking of the perfect type of partner, and as much as a I hate to say it, John Terry would be great. Who's the closest player to JT today?
Jared Branthwaite has very similar qualities to John Terry but has more pace than Terry did, that’s why everyone wants to sign him, Madrid being interested is a problem.
 
P1. Build a team around Garnacho and he's best on the left so I'd sell Rashford.

P2. Build a spine around Mainoo and Hojlund. Mainoo is wasted as a 6 long term, so I'd keep Casemiro, sign another 6 and sign Fergusson as a rotational striker for Hojlund

P3. Develop a core of young talented players, preferably English. All out for Cole Palmer with £90m bid.

P4. Improve culture by getting shot of big earners who deliver little


Big sales £240m
- £90m Rashford
- £70m Sancho + Greenwood
- £40m Maguire
- £40m Antony

Big Buys £290m
- £80m Fergusson
- £90m Palmer
- £40m Haidara or Fofana
- £80m Silva

--------------------- Hojlund / Fergusson ---------------------
Garnacho -------------------------------------------------- Palmer / Amad
------------------------- Bruno / Mount----------------------------------
--------- Mainoo / McT -------- Case / Fofana ----------

Shaw ---------- Licha --------------- Silva ----------------- Dalot
Someone living in Fantasy Land?
United will not sell Rashford,
older fans may be upset with his form but the kids idolise him, not happening plus by the end of the season his numbers will look far better now he knows he needs to produce just to make the England squad for the Euros
 
Jared Branthwaite has very similar qualities to John Terry but has more pace than Terry did, that’s why everyone wants to sign him, Madrid being interested is a problem.
Very two footed.
 
Someone living in Fantasy Land?
United will not sell Rashford,
older fans may be upset with his form but the kids idolise him, not happening plus by the end of the season his numbers will look far better now he knows he needs to produce just to make the England squad for the Euros

United have sold Beckham, Ronaldo, Stam, Ince and many more... they'd sell Rashford if they thought it made sense.
 
It’s a pity we can’t get Ashworth working straight away.
Would be nice to see a signing or two sorted early i.e. May
Still could happen of course.
 
Would love to see a solid partner for Licha who is consistently available. Just thinking of the perfect type of partner, and as much as a I hate to say it, John Terry would be great. Who's the closest player to JT today?
That would be Maguire.
 
I think Adarabioyo on a free, Branthwaite, Gutierrez, Varela, a right winger and a back up striker is a very realistic summer money wise especially if we move Maguire, Lindelof, VDB, Greenwood and Sancho on for money and Evans, Eriksen and Martial on frees/retirement.
 
P1. Build a team around Garnacho and he's best on the left so I'd sell Rashford.

P2. Build a spine around Mainoo and Hojlund. Mainoo is wasted as a 6 long term, so I'd keep Casemiro, sign another 6 and sign Fergusson as a rotational striker for Hojlund

P3. Develop a core of young talented players, preferably English. All out for Cole Palmer with £90m bid.

P4. Improve culture by getting shot of big earners who deliver little


Big sales £240m
- £90m Rashford
- £70m Sancho + Greenwood
- £40m Maguire
- £40m Antony

Big Buys £290m
- £80m Fergusson
- £90m Palmer
- £40m Haidara or Fofana
- £80m Silva

--------------------- Hojlund / Fergusson ---------------------
Garnacho -------------------------------------------------- Palmer / Amad
------------------------- Bruno / Mount----------------------------------
--------- Mainoo / McT -------- Case / Fofana ----------

Shaw ---------- Licha --------------- Silva ----------------- Dalot
Is that Fergusson, the Ferguson at Brighton?

£80m for him?
 
United have sold Beckham, Ronaldo, Stam, Ince and many more... they'd sell Rashford if they thought it made sense.
Yep Fergie would have sold him because he didn’t care about who bought shirts but this will be where the Glazers still dig in on ther power base, sells more shirts than most so he’ll stay plus you can’t lose Greenwood, Sancho, Antony, Pellistri and Rashford all in one window if we move three of those we’ve done extremely well?
 
Yep Fergie would have sold him because he didn’t care about who bought shirts but this will be where the Glazers still dig in on ther power base, sells more shirts than most so he’ll stay plus you can’t lose Greenwood, Sancho, Antony, Pellistri and Rashford all in one window if we move three of those we’ve done extremely well?

This notion that United needs Rashford to sell shirts is such a nothing burger , United might see slight drop initially in Shirt sale numbers and even that's not given but over the long run it would hardly make any difference .
 
We need a good summer. I’m not keen on summer windows when there’s an international tournament. If your targets perform well the price rockets up. Also takes a while to get them signed on and allows other teams to intervene.
 
Yep Fergie would have sold him because he didn’t care about who bought shirts but this will be where the Glazers still dig in on ther power base, sells more shirts than most so he’ll stay plus you can’t lose Greenwood, Sancho, Antony, Pellistri and Rashford all in one window if we move three of those we’ve done extremely well?

Jim is in control of football matters so unless Glazers want Sancho etc working as till assistants then they’re as good as gone.

The glazers also sanctioned CR7’s contract so perhaps not as influenced by commercial as you think?
 
Attackign Right Back
Right Sided Centre Back
Centre BACK
Left Back
Defensive Midfielder
Defensive Midfielder
Midfielder
Right WInger
Striker

Have listed so may as I think we should be offloading 12-15players. The bolded ones are for me the biggest priorities considering what is left in our squad with outgoings and there are quite a few young playes with big reputations and price tags too for those positions who could be massive progressive signings for us in the long term.

There aer a lot of unknown names to most of us being mentioned for a lot of the other positions from places like South America, so I feel especially with the backroom team and ethos Ineos seem to be encouraging, we dont need to be spending a fortune to fulfil a lot of these positions.

Personally I would also be looking at raising a shed load of money and replacing two of our biggest stars at umber 10 and left wing, but we all know that isnt happening this summer, so is almost pointless discussing whichever side of the fence you sit on.

What SHOULD and is likely to happen this summer for the first time in way way way too long, is we genuinely should be raising a good amount of money from sales when looking through some of the players that will definately be moved on
 
Jim is in control of football matters so unless Glazers want Sancho etc working as till assistants then they’re as good as gone.

The glazers also sanctioned CR7’s contract so perhaps not as influenced by commercial as you think?
Rashford is not getting sold, he’s had a shite season but he’s nowhere near as bad as Antony who also gets paid an awful lot as a 23 year old on £12m per year which is far more of an issue than Rashford, united could have bought Kudas who offers the same skill set as Mason Mount and Antony put together but guarantees more goals, pace and assists. We could have saved £100m on transfers and £20m per year on wages had we bought Kudas rather than Mount and Antony, that’s how well the Glazers muppets ran this club!
 
Rashford is not getting sold, he’s had a shite season but he’s nowhere near as bad as Antony who also gets paid an awful lot as a 23 year old on £12m per year which is far more of an issue than Rashford, united could have bought Kudas who offers the same skill set as Mason Mount and Antony put together but guarantees more goals, pace and assists. We could have saved £100m on transfers and £20m per year on wages had we bought Kudas rather than Mount and Antony, that’s how well the Glazers muppets ran this club!

I guess we'll see.

I think it's quite possible that Jim will lean into "the next Mbappe" which he was quoted saying in a recent interview.

I think we should get shot of Antony too.
 
Sell Lindelof , Maguire, Varane
Sign Todibo or Bremer and Branthwaite

Sell Casimero
Sign Guido Rodriquez

Sell Mctominey , Eriksen, Beek
Sign Joao Neves

Sell Antony, Sancho, Rashford, Greenwood
Sign Olise

Release Martial
Sign Jonathan David

If Chelsea are still struggling try and get Palmer back to Manchester season after next. Feels like him and Mount are both at the wrong clubs.
 
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I think we can stick a fork in Casimero and Varane which means those positions are significantly lacking quality. Hard to see past those as priorities.

Mainoo needs some actual support, it's not good enough that an 18 year old is the only one capable of taking the football in challenging situations.

We can't go back to the bad old days of playing Maguire and Lindelof regularly and not expect to suffer.

It's painful that we're replacing these already, it highlights a criminal lack of judgment and squad building.
 
Didn’t realise til earlier than Danny Welbeck is out of contract in the summer, he looked fantastic today against the dippers and as a back up option could have an Evans like effect in coming back to the club.
 
Didn’t realise til earlier than Danny Welbeck is out of contract in the summer, he looked fantastic today against the dippers and as a back up option could have an Evans like effect in coming back to the club.

He scored 5 goals this season in 25 games.
 
He scored 5 goals this season in 25 games.

4 goals and 3 assists in 20 league games which works out at a goal contribution of 1 in less than 3 games, far better than Martial this season and minute for minute better than Rashford this season whilst playing in a lesser team.

You do realise than due to FFP/PSR there isn’t a bottomless pit of money right ? There’s lots of great bargains out there on frees this summer like Lloyd Kelly, Adarabioyo, Guido Rodriguez, Rabiot, Taremi and Welbeck and we should certainly be in for them as they’d definitely improve our squad.
 
4 goals and 3 assists in 20 league games which works out at a goal contribution of 1 in less than 3 games, far better than Martial this season and minute for minute better than Rashford this season whilst playing in a lesser team.

You do realise than due to FFP/PSR there isn’t a bottomless pit of money right ? There’s lots of great bargains out there on frees this summer like Lloyd Kelly, Adarabioyo, Guido Rodriguez, Rabiot, Taremi and Welbeck and we should certainly be in for them as they’d definitely improve our squad.
As backup he’d be decent, he wouldn’t be expecting to play every game, good presser, good link up play and can HEAD

Welbeck scored 6 goals in 28 matches according to Whoscored this season. In comparision Weghorst scored 5 goals in 22 games. Danny also spent 1236 days in the treatment room throughout his entire career according to transfermarkt. He was out for 56 days of those this season alone.

Our squad struggle in scoring goals and in keeping its squad fit. Welbeck struggles massively in both. We need a solid cover/competitor for Hojlund. Welbeck can't do that.
 
Every season there will be a new need, with players moving on, ageing and the game changing around us. But for this season what we need most is to raise both the physical and technical levels of the team.



In defence I think right back can wait, centre back is where the most work is needed. We should sell Maguire and Lindelof. Ideally I would keep Varane so that there is a little bit of continuity but if he leaves he leaves. I’d like to see us bring in Branthwaite and Adarabioyo and if Varane leaves I’d get Todibo. Left back does need addressing but for now I’d either make a Malacia type cheap signing or get someone on loan like Cucurella or Reguillon again just so there’s someone there if Shaw goes down again. I have high hopes for Amass.



Midfield. Ideally we get 2. One in the Onana/Hjulmand ilk and one like Joao Neves/ Joao Gomes. Both signings would need to be accomplished ball winners but I think those 2 profiles would be a good mix of athleticism and ability on the ball. I think Eriksen, DvB and either Casemiro or Mctominay leave in the summer, can’t see it being both. This would free up enough space though to make the signings.



Now for the attack. Martial is 100% leaving. Sancho and Greenwood will never play for the club again and I can’t see Pellistri ever getting a chance so he will probably leave either permanently or on loan in the summer. I’d also happily sell Antony for anything more than £35m. We will need a winger and a striker this summer. For me the striker has to be someone young who isn’t going to be demanding to be the first choice, so no Toney. Id go with Sesko or Zirkzee due to their age and price being very similar. At this we could have 2 good options at striker for the next 10 years. On the wing, obviously I’d be very happy with Olise. But if Garnacho is making the right wing his own, and Amad being more comfortable on the right, does it make sense to sign a specialist right winger? I’d personally like to see us go for a player comfortable on both sides. Nico Williams would be my choice, but Marcus Edwards and Yeremy Pino would be on the list.

TLDR

So in total I would sell:

Maguire £20-25m

Lindelof £15m

Varane* free

Eriksen £5-10m

Van de beek £5-10m

Casemiro or Mctominay £30m

Martial free

Greenwood £20-30m

Sancho £30-35m

Antony** £35m

Pellistri Loan or £10-15m

So in total it would be £135-175m in sales, plus any fee we get for Antony if he left. The prices here are low balled.

And for the ins:

Branthwaite £60-70m

Adarabioyo free

Todibo £40m* if varane leaves

Onana or Hjulmand £50-55m

Gomes £35-40m or Neves £85m+

Sesko or zirkzee around £40m

Williams £50m or Edwards/Pino £35mish

I’d say a maximum total of £215 plus £40m if we sign Todibo. If Todibo was signed I don’t think we could afford the extra cost of Neves so we would go for Gomes for £40m top price. If no Todibo then maybe Neves is an option. All in all you would be looking at around £300m.

Around £150m net spend but with the players going out being replaced by younger players from smaller teams the wages would probably come down a bit.
 
Every season there will be a new need, with players moving on, ageing and the game changing around us. But for this season what we need most is to raise both the physical and technical levels of the team.



In defence I think right back can wait, centre back is where the most work is needed. We should sell Maguire and Lindelof. Ideally I would keep Varane so that there is a little bit of continuity but if he leaves he leaves. I’d like to see us bring in Branthwaite and Adarabioyo and if Varane leaves I’d get Todibo. Left back does need addressing but for now I’d either make a Malacia type cheap signing or get someone on loan like Cucurella or Reguillon again just so there’s someone there if Shaw goes down again. I have high hopes for Amass.



Midfield. Ideally we get 2. One in the Onana/Hjulmand ilk and one like Joao Neves/ Joao Gomes. Both signings would need to be accomplished ball winners but I think those 2 profiles would be a good mix of athleticism and ability on the ball. I think Eriksen, DvB and either Casemiro or Mctominay leave in the summer, can’t see it being both. This would free up enough space though to make the signings.



Now for the attack. Martial is 100% leaving. Sancho and Greenwood will never play for the club again and I can’t see Pellistri ever getting a chance so he will probably leave either permanently or on loan in the summer. I’d also happily sell Antony for anything more than £35m. We will need a winger and a striker this summer. For me the striker has to be someone young who isn’t going to be demanding to be the first choice, so no Toney. Id go with Sesko or Zirkzee due to their age and price being very similar. At this we could have 2 good options at striker for the next 10 years. On the wing, obviously I’d be very happy with Olise. But if Garnacho is making the right wing his own, and Amad being more comfortable on the right, does it make sense to sign a specialist right winger? I’d personally like to see us go for a player comfortable on both sides. Nico Williams would be my choice, but Marcus Edwards and Yeremy Pino would be on the list.

TLDR

So in total I would sell:

Maguire £20-25m

Lindelof £15m

Varane* free

Eriksen £5-10m

Van de beek £5-10m

Casemiro or Mctominay £30m

Martial free

Greenwood £20-30m

Sancho £30-35m

Antony** £35m

Pellistri Loan or £10-15m

So in total it would be £135-175m in sales, plus any fee we get for Antony if he left. The prices here are low balled.

And for the ins:

Branthwaite £60-70m

Adarabioyo free

Todibo £40m* if varane leaves

Onana or Hjulmand £50-55m

Gomes £35-40m or Neves £85m+

Sesko or zirkzee around £40m

Williams £50m or Edwards/Pino £35mish

I’d say a maximum total of £215 plus £40m if we sign Todibo. If Todibo was signed I don’t think we could afford the extra cost of Neves so we would go for Gomes for £40m top price. If no Todibo then maybe Neves is an option. All in all you would be looking at around £300m.

Around £150m net spend but with the players going out being replaced by younger players from smaller teams the wages would probably come down a bit.


Be very happy with that window. Good choices
 
Athleticism and technical ability. That is what we need.

Diomande
Zubimendi
Olmo

I guarantee these three raise our teams footballing ability tenfold.
 
I still think we need a playmaking striker ala Martial, Kane, or Benzema.
 
ffs Licha is injured again..We can't rely on him and Shaw anymore. Also, unfortunately we should not splash money on Neves, even if we miss out on a generational talent. It's just not the right timing to ignore that we need a complete revamp of the squad. Instead, we gotta sign as much good players as possible with our limited budget.

LB: Miguel Gutierrez (25m)
RCB: Leny Yoro (45m) or Jean-Clair Todibo (35m)
LCB: Piero Hincapie (35m)
CB: Aaron Anselmino (15m)
DM: Guido Rodriguez (free)
DM/CM: Teeun Koopmeiners (45m) or Kephren Thuram (30m)
CM: Ross Barkley (free)
WF: Nico Williams (43m)
CF: Artem Dovbyk (25m) or Joshua Zirkzee (34m)

I have no idea how big our final budget will be, and how many of these players we could sign, but we gotta sell the likes of Lindelof, Casemiro, Eriksen, VdB, McTominay, Sancho, Greenwood and let go of Varane and Martial, too.
 
ffs Licha is injured again..We can't rely on him and Shaw anymore.

Really feels like we need one guy who can play LB or LCB and then pray one of Shaw or Licha is always available, so a guy like Arsenal have with Kiwior or City with Ake, even if neither are exceptional at their 2nd best position. As you cited, Hincapie would make sense if he's adjudged to be strong enough to play LCB in a back 4 in the Prem.
 
Really feels like we need one guy who can play LB or LCB and then pray one of Shaw or Licha is always available, so a guy like Arsenal have with Kiwior or City with Ake, even if neither are exceptional at their 2nd best position. As you cited, Hincapie would make sense if he's adjudged to be strong enough to play LCB in a back 4 in the Prem.
We need to sign a LCB and a LB..
 
P1. Build a team around Garnacho and he's best on the left so I'd sell Rashford.
I'm actually not sure if he is. This season at least he's definitely been better on the right. I think a lot of people forget that Garnacho started the season playing quite poorly, and it wasn't until he got moved to the right that he really got into form.

It's a fairly small sample size so I'm not saying he's definitely better on the right, but I also don't think we can say he's definitely better on the left. The hope is that he's equally good on both sides, but really only time will tell.
 
Not really. The year Manchester United signed Bryan Robson (for example), the club also signed the likes of Frank Stapleton, Paul McGrath, Remi Moses. The year Manchester United signed Gary Pallister (another example), the club also signed the likes of Paul Ince, Mike Phelan, Neil Webb. It's far from some sort of zero-sum game where you foolhardily exhaust all resources on a certain individual, and it's perfectly possible for the club to maximize its budget, and procure a Galáctico (or a Galáctico-in-the-making) who is likely to make a genuine difference, on top a few players who won't cost as much — as long as we offload certain players to improve the balance sheets (and overall financial health of the instutition), and employ clever accounting tricks. Orthodox measures like austerity are oftentimes counterproductive in the sporting realm (much like in the “real world”), and might needlessly throttle the possibly rampant evolution of the project.

For example, Florian Wirtz might cost £90 million or thereabouts, but his wages will be much lower than Bruno Fernandes' (which are in the £13 million per year range), and the latter could be sold for a decent amount of money too — all things considered it's unlikely to be a prohibitively expensive acquisition, and the player is only going to turn 21 in a few months (so he would represent a better investment than someone who seems to be visibly declining and unlikely to be a centerpiece of medium-term projections). Press-resistant, a good ball carrier as well as a good passer, seems sharp from a tactical perspective, one of the organizational reference points of his team already, 10 goals (no penalties) and 17 assists for Bayer Leverkusen this term, 3 x Bundesliga Player of the Month over the course of the ongoing campaign, and would go nicely with the exciting trio of Højlund, Mainoo and Garnacho.



I don't know about the situation or the finances that far back, or have looked at the windows before or after that one big transfer window at the time; however, in our current situation where we have been blowing cash on duds or crocks for more than a decade some sort of financial prudence is warranted to get the house back in order. I am not averse to a big singing or making a splash, if e.g. a big player like Rashford or Bruno leaves for a huge sum and we get a windfall to make a huge signing. Although, in our current situation where our budget is stretched and we need to reinforce quite a few positions on the field I believe it would be better to go the route of finding hidden gems or players on the cusp rather than spending a huge amount on a single player.

I also agree with your assertion that we won't go very far if austerity is our only measure moving forward. To take the team to a level where we are genuine contenders for the big two trophies we would need to take risks and spend huge sums of money on one or two special/marquee players who elevate the team to the next level. However, I feel we may be a season or two away from that stage at the moment. Whether we like or not, our current situation warrants a bit of prudence while we try to empty the menagerie of duds we have accumulated and reinforce those positions with players who can form the basis of our long term future success.
 
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We need 3 midfielders, 3 centre backs, a left back and a striker. That’s not solving everything but it’s a start. Clearly that won’t happen in one window but we have to be looking at minimum of 5-6 first team signings.
 
We need 3 midfielders, 3 centre backs, a left back and a striker. That’s not solving everything but it’s a start. Clearly that won’t happen in one window but we have to be looking at minimum of 5-6 first team signings.

This summer should be a minimum of:

2 x CBs (Todibo + Adarabioyo?)
1 x LB (Dorgu?)
2 x CMs (Thuram + Hjulmand/Onana?)
1 x ST (Zirkzee?)

If we’re able to shift Antony and AWB on then you can throw another winger and RB in there too.