If Enzo goes Chelsea may be an option.
‘No value in the market’ - 2026
- Thread starter Rozay
- Start date
-
Hello, Guest! We have a new competition (with tagline and award as prizes) starting.
A new Odds or Evens competition is starting now. Click here to enter to submit your predictions. Submissions will be open for the next 3 days, 10 hours, 45 minutes, 14 seconds, and will close on Sep 12, 2026 at 15:00.
If Enzo goes Chelsea may be an option.
Onana was shiny toy to ten haag. Plenty said he was far from an elite keeper, he looked shocking in his return for ajax after his ban and no one wanted him then. There was plenty of arguments on here, half saying he would transform how we play and the other half saying he's poor at the actual goalkeeping part. He is a prime example of spending obscene amounts on average players
Yes, wins against Ipswich and Hull will definitely prove we are good enough to succeed this season.
I suspect if we hadn’t spent a penny and sold half the squad, you’d be here trying to sell the narrative that it’s all good because now youth players will have their path to the first team.
It isn't either/or. We could easily have bought a better squad and for less money.
Iraola likes two high energy CMs based on his Bournemouth set-up, and his teams progress the ball through the middle of the pitch far less than others. Wharton is pretty much the complete opposite of the kind of profile he'd probably want.
Nobody thinks he's worth the money, even with the crazy prices we've already seen.
And other players were shiny toys to Van Gaal (Di Maria, among many others) and Mourino (Pogba, Lukaku and Sanchez among many others) as well. And Ronaldo was a shiny toy to whoever made that call in management at the time -- primarily for the purpose of monetizing their names more than what was needed from a footballing performance perspective. The point is, we bought shiny toy after after shiny toy and it got us nowhere except more clicks and shirt sales. And then of course Onana and Sancho, who need no introduction here.
As for Onana, I was hounded day after day during that summer for objecting to the buy of Onana long before he started chucking the ball into his net. I mocked the idea that he would somehow "transform" our outfield play, so much so to the point that even after I documented all the hysterical claims about how Onana's brilliant footwork would transform our play, I was rebuked here. Not only did our outfield performance not transform itself into Ferrari football, we stood a huge step backward and Onana further cemented our international laughinstock status as a club which had no effing clue what we were doing with our squad building strategy.
But as I said earlier, every club gets it wrong from time to time and if Onana were a one off mistake there can be no real complaint. But we got it wrong far more than we got it right with our massive buys (is it now 1.5 billion or just 1.1 billion?), which does not argue against massive buys in the future but it does argue that when the social media influencers like Goldbridge melt down because we haven't bought the latest shiny toy yet we need to treat their calls to panic with the same kind of rebuke shown to them that should have been shown to them when they demanded we buy Onana.
United needs to stop playing 'whack-a-mole', with players and managers....and owners.
No real sign of any of it coming about... proof, the club is still talking about building a brand new multi-billion pound stadium, located between a railway line on one side and a canal on the other.
No real sign of any of it coming about... proof, the club is still talking about building a brand new multi-billion pound stadium, located between a railway line on one side and a canal on the other.
I mean stopping our decade-long tradition of dropping silly points to these types of sides is actually how you would start building a title charge, so it would be a start at least.
And I want us to spend money but it's not a bad thing being careful about who you spend it on, especially when we've actually got a good squad now. We've wasted enough time clearing out the squad.
It takes time to move the dial.
Being careful and being unambigious and greedy leeches are different things. This squad needed major reinforcement for the many games coming up the season. The owners have not provided what is needed so far. Still some time left though but it's not looking good considering the options we have already missed out on
I thought we had a plan. I'm relaxed though.
I encourage you to think more about who we have already than who we've missed out on.
The starting XI could be improved at LB, and who knows if De Ligt will ever play football again, but this is our likely starting XI assuming full fitness:
Lammens
Dalot Martinez Maguire Shaw
Santos Mainoo
Mbeumo Fernandes Cunha
Sesko
That's actually a very decent starting XI. We need to upgrade on Shaw, and I would actually add upgrading on Dalot on the to-do list but that's not going to happen right now, whereas it seems nailed on that we will bring in a LB can carry the ball forward and whip in a cross. But surely we're all happy with Lammens and Martinez, surely we'll see Heaven emerge as a standout CB (he already is, but let's give him more time) this season, surely Santos already looks like an outstanding acquisition, surely we're over the moon on Mainoo, surely we're thrilled with Mbeumo/Bruno/Cunha, and surely our expectations of Sesko are sky high.
Where the real questions emerge is our depth. Our backup keeper...who knows what Darlow has got? Maz offers less going forward than Dalot, questions abound re the fitness of Martinez and De Ligt, Yoro is developing, Maguire is aging, and Heaven is an outrageous prospect but is he ready to step in for a long spell if Carrick needs him to? Tielemans and Mount are fantastic in midfield, but doubts about either are not unreasonable. We all love Amad so we're good there, but some question Dorgu's ability going forward. And the less said about Zirkzee, the better.
Depth is our problem. But the big names we've "missed out on" would not have come for depth anyway. Tchouameni is not going to leave Real and he's not coming to United -- unless we believe the caughtoffside piece yesterday that claimed United are going to buy -- "this audacious double bid" -- Tchoumeni and Camavinga for 150m. As much as I like Tonali, and I really do, he's just not worth 100m. After watching Anderson in the World Cup, I think it's safe to say we were wise not bidding 120m for him. We were never going to spend 125m on anyone, let alone Diomande when we already have Cunha.
If we get comfortable wins over Ipswich and Hull, I'll be more confident.
Go back 20 years and we started the season with big wins over Fulham and Charlton and that sort of set the tone for what came next over the course of the season.
I wonder if it's also a matter of the club hedging their bets, to see if they need to be ready to back a new manager in Jan should things under Carrick get untenable by next year? We all hope it doesn't come to that, but you need to prepared for contingencies. If Carrick is doing well, we'll make more moves in Jan itself.
I’d feel more confident if we had a Rooney or Ronaldo on our hands this time. Do you genuinely believe if a Wayne Rooney was on the market now that we’d be willing to spend what it takes to get him?
Course we wouldn't. Even an 18yr old cr7 would be big money and have more successful suitors now. We would be going for an Antony le tallec while saying we got the better option and cr7 was overpriced for an unproven teenager
A kid and a grandpa. Let’s be serious here. We neee 2-3 more signings that can challenge to be first choice. INEOS need to be quicker and more ambitious.
really, really struggling to see how this plan of INEOS is working out. the team turned it around in the second half of last year when when Carrick came on, and I just don't think we're backing him enough. Our signings in the past year, thankfully, have been fantastic - we just need more of them. Does the team we have right now get us to third in the Premier League, deep in either cup and through to the knockouts in the CL? I'm not so sure it does, and that's largely due to the fact we're expecting too much from our existing squad with no margin for error in the injury department.
I think pulling back and doing things sensibly for a change is good (smarter signings, no blanket salary hike for CL qualification, no silly contracts and many more), but there has to be balance between being clever and ambitious.
Yeah we are trying to be clever but it lacks ambition
The only player I am disappointed in missing out on is Mateus Fernandes from West Ham, but his wages would have been too high and I think we did the right thing.
It does feel as you are suggesting like other teams have strengthened more than us and we are lacking ambition but I can't actually think of any other players we have missed out on for that reason?
How exactly is it lack of ambition? In what world is Fernandes a better signing than Tielemans?
Or in other words, what other signings does disappoint you or you think we should have signed?
I would have liked to add both Fernandes and Tielemans
So why did we have a sub 100M net spend this summer? The club clearly wanted more players.
No money or no value in the market?
No money or no value in the market?
The ownership will say it's a bit of both
Both really. We had no money for the current market. We had enough money for a market 10 years ago.
Must say, we’ve really been out in our place this summer as far as finances go. We’re in and around the mid to lower table clubs expenditure.
We've bought players for huge sums in the recent past and they turned out to be a pile of shit, what we spend doesn't matter it's how we spend it and the end result of that spending, all this bitching and moaning about how much we spent compared to X or y club is nonsense if we finish in the top 4 our spend did exactly what we want it to do for now, everyone wants to jump straight from getting in the CL for one year to challenging for the league let's get CL again increase revenues and go again from a stronger position
I think to some extent there is a lack of quality in the market especially defenders and strikers, Konsa is decent at best £55m he will be warming the bench when Saliba is fit
Maybe if we had gone in for Hall straight away we could have got him for sub £60m but I am not sure and whilst he represents value for money if he plays here for 8 seasons, he is still only a decent player
I cannot really think of many players other than Anderson and M Fernandes who were theoretically available this summer that I would have wanted to sign, both were very overpriced and the jury is very much out still on Fernandes
I think the purchases we have made have been very shrewd, I am disappointed that we did not get a LB but I could not tell you which LB would have been worth breaking the bank for
Maybe if we had gone in for Hall straight away we could have got him for sub £60m but I am not sure and whilst he represents value for money if he plays here for 8 seasons, he is still only a decent player
I cannot really think of many players other than Anderson and M Fernandes who were theoretically available this summer that I would have wanted to sign, both were very overpriced and the jury is very much out still on Fernandes
I think the purchases we have made have been very shrewd, I am disappointed that we did not get a LB but I could not tell you which LB would have been worth breaking the bank for
I just don't get looking down our nose at free agents when this ownership are always looking for value
It’s neither nonsense, not bitching and moaning. ‘How we spend it’ is irrelevant when compared to simply not spending it. We are not here debating whether we should have bought a more expensive left-back, or striker. We simply refused to buy either.
There is no circumstance where not adding cover in necessary positions puts us closer to the CL.
Any of the good free agents will probably be taking a pay day from Saudi or Turkiye, who does that leave Vardy?
That's not what the argument was really. A lot of us saw the opportunity with all our rivals in flux, bar Arsenal and we were in the strange position of our Manager actually having some tenure and results behind him going into the summer. We knew we were going to adapt our style this coming season and play more games, across competitions - Carrick's half season in one competition can't be realiably used as the blueprint, so investment was needed to consolidate. The bare minimum was with the midfield, so a few of us hoped we might push the boat out and get a LB and CF cover. I understand the CF position with Rashford and ZIrkzee not being able to be shifted, but I don't understand how investing in a LB is some how asking the world and expecting us to compete for the league.
Chelsea are trying to go from 10th to challenging for the league. We want to wait and build which is fine, what people were saying though is this could've been our best opportunity for a decade as the top teams are currently not ad staring as they once were
As many have said already, it’s the lack of outgoings which put a dent into our plans.
Ugarte and Rashford would have freed up a significant chunk for a LB.
Ugarte and Rashford would have freed up a significant chunk for a LB.
Apparently we only had money to either buy a LB or a CM, like many of us deduced after our dithering post the Tielemans deal. Explains the MLS links as well.
If so, questions can be raised over spending 50M on your 4th choice CM, rather than a LB and a cheaper punt in midfield. You could have got a Seys + Chema for the price of a Santos. The charitable answer is they wanted quality over quantity, but that remains to be seen.
Eitherway, absolutely unacceptable that our budget was just 100M after Carrick finished 3rd. But also lines up exactly with the avg spend post we qualify for CL. Pathetic.
Yeah the Ugarte one was a huge blow, always felt Rashford would be difficult to shift due to wages involved
You don't get the CL money until the end of this season.
The wankfest over Chema needs to stop. He is in no way ready to come and play for Manchester United. Santos can actually offer something this season, in fact he will probably surprise a lot of people.
Seys?! Brugge shut shop after after selling Tzolis. They'd have asked feck off money for a full back, so he alone would have cost more than Santos. I also suspect most people hadn't heard this guy's name until a few weeks ago.
I bet you were one of the people who hoped Ederson failed his medical? Well guess what, if that hadn't happened we probably don't sign one of Baleba or Santos, then we'd have had more money available to sign a LB.
And that will still be a problem next season as it will be the same players we’ll be trying to offload and Ugarte will be returning from injury. At some point the club will have to start selling players like commodities to raise high fees.
It was a tough window for incomings but given the huge upside to qualifying for the Champions League they should have stretched the budget. I don’t mean spending another 100m but they had to improve the defence especially as they know they’ll be doing it next year anyway.