Did we waste €200 million this summer?
- Thread starter Andycoleno9
- Start date
Of course we have.
I genuinely think our fans don't understand football. EVERY transfer, EVERY transfer window is praised, and, in the last decade, what do we have to show for them? Nothing. No big trophies, no good football, no players who go up in value, and that's because every transfer window has been terrible.
This one is no different. We've bought rubbish players. We've bought players we didn't need. We haven't bought players we did need. We haven't even bought good players we didn't need. The same ol', same ol'.
I genuinely think our fans don't understand football. EVERY transfer, EVERY transfer window is praised, and, in the last decade, what do we have to show for them? Nothing. No big trophies, no good football, no players who go up in value, and that's because every transfer window has been terrible.
This one is no different. We've bought rubbish players. We've bought players we didn't need. We haven't bought players we did need. We haven't even bought good players we didn't need. The same ol', same ol'.
Fees are paid, and United always overpay and we are also overcharged on players fees, so the less we talk about fees the better.
The issue is do these signings work, for example, I was ok for us to pay 85m on Antony because we were desperate for an inverted RW, but now, after a season, it seems like a waste, if a player does not perform then people will remember how much the club paid for him, we paid 57m for Martinez, but he was good last season so no one cares about his fee even though it is still an overpayment, we need our signings to work regardless of how much they cost, because we can't keep going into the market and sign new players every season just to improve, this current group must aim for the best outcome and get there too or it will be another wasted season.
The issue is do these signings work, for example, I was ok for us to pay 85m on Antony because we were desperate for an inverted RW, but now, after a season, it seems like a waste, if a player does not perform then people will remember how much the club paid for him, we paid 57m for Martinez, but he was good last season so no one cares about his fee even though it is still an overpayment, we need our signings to work regardless of how much they cost, because we can't keep going into the market and sign new players every season just to improve, this current group must aim for the best outcome and get there too or it will be another wasted season.
Yes, it’s been a waste. We could’ve kept last year’s squad and had more points after 7 games.
Ah we do love a good hyperbole on the Caf don't we
Ah so Ten Hag plays FPL. One of us
Too early to tell, but at this moment it seems that it would've been better to keep DDG and break the bank for Kane
Mount is absolute shite and offers us nothing we didnt already have so that was wasted money for sure.
Onana looks shakey but then so does almost every other player in the squad right now. He’s probably a £20million overspend on what we’ve seen so far.
Hojlund needs time so way to early to judge that one.
Amrabat looks like he could be a reasonable addition, well based on the loan fee anyway
Onana looks shakey but then so does almost every other player in the squad right now. He’s probably a £20million overspend on what we’ve seen so far.
Hojlund needs time so way to early to judge that one.
Amrabat looks like he could be a reasonable addition, well based on the loan fee anyway
Certainly did in my opinion. Not necessarily because they weren't worth the money but they were the right transfers at the right time.
Mount - square peg in United's round hole.
Onana - does he really elevate us that much more to warrant the 50m. I think we would have been better off holding off for another summer while looking at other areas.
Hojlund - now how the feck did we end up in this situation. Where's the proactive planning from the club! We've known for 2 summers at least that we need another forward.
But this is United in a nutshell and no longer surprises me. The problem is the whole gang, including EtH.
Mount - square peg in United's round hole.
Onana - does he really elevate us that much more to warrant the 50m. I think we would have been better off holding off for another summer while looking at other areas.
Hojlund - now how the feck did we end up in this situation. Where's the proactive planning from the club! We've known for 2 summers at least that we need another forward.
But this is United in a nutshell and no longer surprises me. The problem is the whole gang, including EtH.
If we had gotten kim min jae, our season (and the other signings) would be looking very different now.
Cheaper I have no idea but I think a player like Lautaro Martinez would have been a safer option, even if it was probably more expensive.
As for the alternative, Gonçalo Ramos was probably the other option and PSG got him for roughly the same price. No idea if he's better than Hojlund though, he isn't spectacular so far.
Tonali and Sangare?! Hmmm ok.
It's far too early to say one way or the other. My intuition is that we brought in the right kind of players but paid too much for them.
united tax. Also people dont seem to realize that a club like united wont really be able to buy the same player a bottom half club can for the same price. The expectation from the selling club will be the bigger club can afford to play more.
Needed a senior CF in his prime - signed a promising youngster for a seriously inflated fee.
Needed a DM/CM to sit alongside Casemiro and rotate - signed an AM/LF and trying to shift into a different position (class United tactic)
Needed a GK which could play out from the back - signed a player that met the criteria but overpaid and could have got him on a free the previous summer.
Needed a CB and sell Maguire - failed and even though an offer came in for Maguire we didn’t sell.
Needed a RB - were not even linked so it seems our management feel Dalot and AWB are good enogh.
Seems to me our club cannot even identify the squad issues. Most fans were questioning the Mount signing when it happened. Why can million of fans see this but the people in charge can’t, and consistently have not since 2013.
Needed a DM/CM to sit alongside Casemiro and rotate - signed an AM/LF and trying to shift into a different position (class United tactic)
Needed a GK which could play out from the back - signed a player that met the criteria but overpaid and could have got him on a free the previous summer.
Needed a CB and sell Maguire - failed and even though an offer came in for Maguire we didn’t sell.
Needed a RB - were not even linked so it seems our management feel Dalot and AWB are good enogh.
Seems to me our club cannot even identify the squad issues. Most fans were questioning the Mount signing when it happened. Why can million of fans see this but the people in charge can’t, and consistently have not since 2013.
We did. We didn't invest properly and overpay for players. Our reputation as the biggest and desperate club certainly worked against us as everyone asked big money for any decent player.
We didn't use the young players from our academy enough. Opting for average players and emergency loans over promoting youth players to plug some gaps in our squad.
We didn't use the young players from our academy enough. Opting for average players and emergency loans over promoting youth players to plug some gaps in our squad.
What I'd love to know from those who won't hear any criticisms of the manager and his transfers is, if he's so great, and every transfer was so good, why are we so bad?
Onana is making Maguire look value for money.
Hojlund scored 2 great goals today, had the ball in the net a third time, great hold up play etc. What would a senior CF in his prime have done any different tonight, why's he the issue?
Mount is already our best midfielder. The others don't have legs, too inexperienced or are shit.
It’s not just about yesterday’s game. If anything we needed two CFs. We can’t even rotate him so he’s bound to get injured or burn out.
Eriksen looked better than him.
Problem with Eriksen is that he doesn't really do anything other than passing the ball. He doesn't have the speed, physicality or the legs to play more than 45 minutes. He doesn't dribble, tackle, intercept or do much else that is required of a CM. We lost a lot of energy when Mejbri was subbed out, even if it was the right decision. Eriksen lost the ball 17 times in 45 minutes last night and had 67% pass success. That is actually incredibly bad for a side that should easily control the game against Galatasaray. I thought he changed the game for a short time after he came on, but then just switched off. I don't think he looked better than Mount at all.
We don’t have space in the team for numerous weak players who cannot control the midfield and carrying one of them is as far as it should go. We have Bruno, Rashford and Case all freely giving the ball away every other minute then people will complain that Eriksen is too lightweight. We just stick players out there and hope for the best without a plan. Square pegs round holes. Our midfield will forever be our downfall. We could afford a player like Eriksen but the foundations behind him (he’s clearly a playmaker) need to be in place yet we have Case bombing forward leaving gaping holes and Bruno (don’t even know what the feck he’s doing these days) constantly hoofing the ball up like Hollywood Stevie used to.
I think we also probably got fleeced on Antony by about £50m.
Malacia whatever we paid for him was too much.
This summer overspent by about £40m on Mount and Rasmus.
Amrabat and Reguilón are fecking steals.
Onana we probably got fleeced on. The dude’s reactions are in slow motion compared to DeGea, it’s really bizarre watching him not save shots.
Malacia whatever we paid for him was too much.
This summer overspent by about £40m on Mount and Rasmus.
Amrabat and Reguilón are fecking steals.
Onana we probably got fleeced on. The dude’s reactions are in slow motion compared to DeGea, it’s really bizarre watching him not save shots.
Martinez, Mount and Hojlund will come good. The other recruitments were poor imo.
Antony is still young but too one-dimensional to develop into something significantly different.
Antony is still young but too one-dimensional to develop into something significantly different.
Mount is a nice tidy player. Nothing against him but he is not better than Eriksen for me.
Agreed with this. Add in Casemiro has been a good signing - albeit age is against him. Antony seems a squad player, at best, but you don't spend anywhere near even half of that for a squad player. Onana looks a travesty.
I have positive vibes about Hojlund. Guy is lightning fast and have goalscorers attitude. He will be last summers hit. And i still believe there is a value of money in Amrabat. Mount is just like i think he always have been, not bad but nothing special. Bang average. Overall we haven´t get value for money. Far from that. Every 200M we spend, we get value for around 80M. It has been same problem over 10 years already. Don´t ask me how to fix it. I have no answer. But that´s our main problem.
Sounds a better deal to me.
No manager has a 100% success rate in the transfer market...also United are utterly terrible at negotiating.
So I'm torn as to who should take the blame for the final transfer packages. If you want to blame the manager then cool, no one can argue as we will never know what goes on behind the scenes.
All things considered the only BAD transfer imo has been Antony.
But Antony seems to be a shadow of the player he was in Holland, so he has to take some of the blame for not performing to his own standards. United should take some blame for the poor negotiating and EtH should take some blame for not getting the best out of him.
So I'm torn as to who should take the blame for the final transfer packages. If you want to blame the manager then cool, no one can argue as we will never know what goes on behind the scenes.
All things considered the only BAD transfer imo has been Antony.
But Antony seems to be a shadow of the player he was in Holland, so he has to take some of the blame for not performing to his own standards. United should take some blame for the poor negotiating and EtH should take some blame for not getting the best out of him.
Strange call out. He’s been injured all season so far and only cost 13m. You wouldn’t get a championship player for 13m
Yes. Except Hojlund who will probably turn out to be the only good signing of ETHs three windows in charge so far.
Don't talk rubbish, Casemiro has been poor this season but he was a good signing. Martinez has been a rock in defense also, another good signing. Don't let the truth get in the way of a good little story you got going on.
Did we waste €200 million this summer?
"Waste" is probably excessively harsh, but one could not reasonably arrive at the conclusion that 200m (if that's what it was) was wisely spent.
We needed a striker, the 70m? we spent on Hojlund will I believe prove to be a good spend. But we spent 70m on an unproven striker.
We didn't need Mount unless the plan is to phase out Bruno, who will still have some market value at the end of this season and really should be moved on to Spain or Saudi Arabia, so I'm not yet prepared to argue that the 60m for Mount was wasted. But if the plan is to keep Bruno and Mount long term, then 60m was shoveled straight into the furnace.
40m was shoveled straight into the furnace for Onana. Under the most of optimistic of assessments he's not an upgrade on De Gea; and based no what we've seen so far he is a significant downgrade. I don't know if the Yashin Award is still a thing, but it's a very safe bet that Onana will be nowhere near the long list, let alone the short list. Expect is to get peltered for goals match after match unless one of our backup keepers can man up.
"Waste" is probably excessively harsh, but one could not reasonably arrive at the conclusion that 200m (if that's what it was) was wisely spent.
We needed a striker, the 70m? we spent on Hojlund will I believe prove to be a good spend. But we spent 70m on an unproven striker.
We didn't need Mount unless the plan is to phase out Bruno, who will still have some market value at the end of this season and really should be moved on to Spain or Saudi Arabia, so I'm not yet prepared to argue that the 60m for Mount was wasted. But if the plan is to keep Bruno and Mount long term, then 60m was shoveled straight into the furnace.
40m was shoveled straight into the furnace for Onana. Under the most of optimistic of assessments he's not an upgrade on De Gea; and based no what we've seen so far he is a significant downgrade. I don't know if the Yashin Award is still a thing, but it's a very safe bet that Onana will be nowhere near the long list, let alone the short list. Expect is to get peltered for goals match after match unless one of our backup keepers can man up.
Only one good season is enough now? Maguire was good in his first season.
Casemiro needs to pick it up and be consistently one of our better performers for the next few years to be considered a successful signing. We spent a wedge on him, he's arguably in his prime, he came with ginormous pedigree and he's on top level wages. One good season isn't sufficient.
I'm not sure he'd make it in the Championship. I saw nothing from him that indicates he's at his level. If he was a youth team player making his senior debut, we could be more forgiving, but he came to us as the "answer" to Shaw's predictability in attack (paraphrasing here). Malacia can hold onto the ball, but he plays fullback like someone whose natural position is somewhere else, he's extremely lightweight and got bullied, and didn't seem able to track runs or put in tackles. Even his attributes of being better in attack turned out to not be the case. He's so far below Shaw's ability that he doesn't make an acceptable back up option. Our squad players should be challenging the first team, and a fully fit Shaw will never be displaced by Malacia. I'm not even certain that Malacia is a better option than Alvarez and Williams. Both of those guys look better tacklers and are more tenacious.
Last edited:
Martinez, Hojlund Eriksen have been the only ones you can't fault the rest have been errors.
Amrabat and Reguilón I'd add as part of the good batch.
Mount will prove himself before too long to the doubters (I like him already).
Casemiro is brilliant when his legs hold up.
Malacia, Onana, Antony are very underwhelming. Definitely got fleeced on Antony. Probably overpaid on Onana too, although he has to remember how to play keeper at some point.
Overall, Ten Hag's new players have been good and improved the team.
Martinez - 9/10
Eriksen - 8/10
Casemiro - 8/10
Antony - 5/10
Malacia - 3/10
Mount - 7/10
Onana - 5/10
Reguilón - 7/10
Amrabat - 7/10
Last edited: