Did we waste €200 million this summer?

I went over the next most expensive signing that same summer in a similar position/role that wasn't to a comparably big club for our over 28 signings and got this:

Casemiro - Matheus Nunes or Amadou Onana
Varane - Gvardiol, Zouma, Tomori or Kumbulla
Cristiano - Daka or Cunha (higher fee, much lower wages)
Matic - Tielemans, Paredes, Renato Sanches,
Sanchez - Carrasco, Lucas Moura, Nicola Pepe (to Lille), Ismaila Sarr

Pretty much what you'd figure.

#8 - We're in better shape squad-wise, but production so far slightly down.

CB - Production down but not a ton because of Varane always being hurt, possibly a gem if Gvardiol would have come here instead of the Leipzig star path. Is Kumbulla any good?

#9 - We have a solid backup in place or guy to compete with Hojlund, but less production that one Cristiano season.

#6 - I think Paredes would have done okay here but frustrating at times. Tielemans same but maybe post-Fergie united we destroy an inconsistent talent like him.

W - Frustrating guys, decent talent. Carrasco would have been helpful but not a star. Lucas is done already, he was just okay. Pepe probably fails here to but you never know, he has talent. Sarr same.

We got 5-6 decent seasons out of that group of older players (Cristiano 1, Matic I'll approximate as 2, Varane let's say 1.5 and Casemiro 1 so far) out of paying them a ton in wages and an extra 10-15M or so a year in fees (big saving in midfield, medium at the rest).

Normally I'd add another 2 guys of similar quality to that group with the money saved in fees and wages, but we'd have probably qualified for less European prize money in that time and sponsorship money, so maybe that evens out, though my guess is that sponsor money is heavily impacted by being in the Champions League so maybe even a slight loss here.

So, what have we learned? I have no idea. My only real takeaways are that it's hard to sign good players, only Gvardiol seems like a real difference maker and we'd be in better shape squad-wise (maybe not financially, as probably less CL games, though maybe we make up some of that in the other 2 competitions) in the future if we'd bought younger players in the past.

Maybe the rest of you can draw some conclusions I can't see.
 
I think depends on 'what" we've spent money on. We've spent about €450m in 2022 and 2023. But if you talk about waste, we've wasted €95m on one player, which is Anthony.

Anthony for me was the worst of the lot. There are at least 20 other better players who would've cost the same, if not less.

As per this summer, I am still undecided over Onana and Mount. Its still too early. They cost a combined €115m, but could we have gotten better players for that amount? I'm not entirely sure.
 
Hughie77 said:
Do you know its not a bad shout I've not been his biggest fan , but who knows he's got arrogance bit of a swagger maybe at OT he could handle it..
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I think he can handle the OT pressure but I very much doubt we can afford him right now and rumours of Arsenal being interested. What sane person would be choosing the mess we are in the moment with other great options available. The one thing we can pretty much guarantee is game time
 
Two years later this was easily, without a contest worst transfer window in club's history.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Two years later this was easily, without a contest worst transfer window in club's history.
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By a long, long way.

You need sectioned to pay up to £130m for Mount and Hojlund.

Onana's obviously turned out to be a huge downgrade on De Gea too. Even at his worst De Gea had rock solid fundamentals and was capable of the spectacular. Onana doesn't and isn't.
 
Bwuk said:
When was the last time we had a good window
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Generally speaking our better windows have been the ones we've done less in.

20/21 - Amad, Pellistri, Cavani. Shame about the Beek though but it was decent apart from him.

18/19 - Fred & Dalot.

Ita when we spend like drunk sailors, that's when we really drag ourselves back.
 
Bwuk said:
When was the last time we had a good window
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This. Even when we think we’ve had a good window it inevitably turns out to be shit. There’s something seriously wrong at this club. If you add up all the signings we’ve made in the last decade it’s only Bruno who’s improved or at least remained at a similar level since joining us. That’s a horrendous hit rate and it’s not just a case of all these players being shit, there’s deep rooted issues at the club. If the majority of these signings went elsewhere I’m certain they’d be nowhere near as bad as they’ve looked here.
 
Skills said:
Generally speaking our better windows have been the ones we've done less in.

20/21 - Amad, Pellistri, Cavani. Shame about the Beek though but it was decent apart from him.

18/19 - Fred & Dalot.

Ita when we spend like drunk sailors, that's when we really drag ourselves back.
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Those are 2 poor windows. Pellesti was shit and VDB the less said.

Fred and Dalot the manager got sacked that season didn’t he? After a proming season we yet again hung the manager out to dry.
 
Redstain said:
I agree the idea of backing managers isn't sustainable. I don't here this of Bayern, Barcelona or Madrid. Clubs that have a similar stature to United.
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Other clubs aren't living in the past desperately trying to find the next Busby or Fergie. Managers come and go and that's normal. The idea of building a whole new team for a new manager and waiting a couple years to evaluate them is idiotic. But that's the sort of stupid shit that is constantly advocated for on here.
 
We wasted 200mil the last 3 summers. I actually thought the most recent transfer window was the best of the three on paper. I actually still don't quite understand how things got this bad...
 
Mr Smith said:
We wasted 200mil the last 3 summers. I actually thought the most recent transfer window was the best of the three on paper. I actually still don't quite understand how things got this bad...
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I had said so many times here. It’s so stupid to sell McFred.
 
city-puma said:
I had said so many times here. It’s so stupid to sell McFred.
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Selling Fred was daft, if only for the fact we had to beg someone to buy him. We got 6m I think, and then paid £10m to get Amrabat on loan for the season.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Two years later this was easily, without a contest worst transfer window in club's history.
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It's either the summer of 2019 or 2023.

Maguire (€87 m), Wan Bissaka (€55m), Dan James (€ 17.8) and Ighalo (€12m loan fee which is comically absurd) in 2019

Onana (€50.2m), Mount (€64.2m), Hojlund (€77.8m), Altay (€5m) and Amrabat (€10m loan fee which is comically absurd) in 2023

Makes you wonder who approves these transfers especially at those prices. And when you think that Onana was a free agent a year before and Mount had only a year on his contract... Yeah, 2023 was a complete disaster really. But i think 2019 is not far behind.
 
theatreofdreams777 said:
It's either the summer of 2019 or 2023.

Maguire (€87 m), Wan Bissaka (€55m), Dan James (€ 17.8) and Ighalo (€12m loan fee which is comically absurd) in 2019

Onana (€50.2m), Mount (€64.2m), Hojlund (€77.8m), Altay (€5m) and Amrabat (€10m loan fee which is comically absurd) in 2023

Makes you wonder who approves these transfers especially at those prices. And when you think that Onana was a free agent a year before and Mount had only a year on his contract... Yeah, 2023 was a complete disaster really. But i think 2019 is not far behind.
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I don't think this can be beaten.
 
theatreofdreams777 said:
It's either the summer of 2019 or 2023.

Maguire (€87 m), Wan Bissaka (€55m), Dan James (€ 17.8) and Ighalo (€12m loan fee which is comically absurd) in 2019

Onana (€50.2m), Mount (€64.2m), Hojlund (€77.8m), Altay (€5m) and Amrabat (€10m loan fee which is comically absurd) in 2023

Makes you wonder who approves these transfers especially at those prices. And when you think that Onana was a free agent a year before and Mount had only a year on his contract... Yeah, 2023 was a complete disaster really. But i think 2019 is not far behind.
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Maguire had been fine over time and dan James was effective and we made a profit
 
This window stands out even more because of the fact that we managed to downgrade team for 200 mil.
We had Wout, Dave/Henderson and Fred for these position. Not even mentioning Greenwood because of ......reasons. In hindsight last 2 seasons we would be much, much better with Dave on the goal, Fred in midfield and Wout in attack compared to these 3 disasters.

I said few times; in last 30 years the most costly decision which this club made was hiring John Murtough. That guy did huge, long term damage to this club.
 
Crashoutcassius said:
Maguire had been fine over time and dan James was effective and we made a profit
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I don't buy that "Maguire is fine" narrative. He was shockingly bad for a couple of seasons & became a walking meme and now he's not that bad it's suddenly "he is fine". He is a player who has more relegations to his name than his winning medals and he's a serial loser. He has no business being at a top club as he's not a top player. He's midtable quality at best.

And let's not forget we made him the most expensive defender in football history and he still is. That's comically bad business. Him still being here after 6 shocking years perfectly explains the fallen standards of Manchester United and our current situation. People are far too tolerant to players like him, Lindelöf etc. They should've gone years ago. How Lindelöf endured 8 years here?

Same with Dan James. He was a Championship quality player before we bought him and he dragged us to his level. And ultimately he found his level. It's not about profit because, players either uplift a team or drag them down to their level if they are in majority.

Ole/ten Hag signed some mid/lower table players like Maguire, Wan Bissaka, Dan James etc. and they didn't uplift us but dragged to their level which is mid/lower table. These are players who shouldn't even have been signed in the first place. Or else, you get used to mediocrity like in our case.
 
Crashoutcassius said:
Maguire had been fine over time and dan James was effective and we made a profit
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He was fine one season and liability mostly in all other seasons. Investment over 100 mil (fee plus salary) in a player who was "fine" then and there is a bad business.

Dan James was like Hojlund on the pitch (out of depth) but on him we at least made a profit.
 
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