Ivanovic isn't good enough. He needed to follow his good season up, which he didn't really do. Vipotnik is doing alright, I'm surprised no one with promotion hopes has targeted him.
Do we need to sign a striker?
- Thread starter jamesjimmybyrondean
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Maybe Watkins interest would get rekindled
Some fans saying we should raid Chelsea for an attacker. This is a terrible move, rumour this morning they want to sell Delap and want £50 million. His stock in my opinion is £20 million. I wouldn’t want him on loan. Oshimen is being touted for Arsenal apparently. We’ve no chance of doing that deal but it would make Arsenal strong favs next season. I think Watkins feels like the best option for us if the price is right.
Not sure how reliable but:
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No chance.
Genuinely think we are ok without another striker. Sesko is out main focus but it's clear Mbeumo can play there as well and by the look of pre season he will be our starting number 9.
Don't agree. Mbuemo had a very barren patch mid season last year and he will likely be starting games anyway. You need to be able to rotate with fresh legs, not with players that are already playing.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I wouldn't be against signing Nicholas Jackson personally, especially if we could get him on loan. His finishing is a weakness but he's a very good all-round cf imo. He'd get plenty of chances to score even if he'll miss more than he should due to his movement.
Some reports of interest in Toney - don’t see it - he has 2 more seasons left on his contract and I saw reports he is on around £22m pa with Saudi 0% tax
Maybe he wants to come back for the sporting challenge but I doubt it at his stage of his career
Maybe he wants to come back for the sporting challenge but I doubt it at his stage of his career
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Too many games for Sesko to load manage with how we play.
Mbeumo can play ST (a bit like how Tevez was used) but I’d want another body up top ideally that knows the league. To be honest I think he’s most likely to be our CF for more league mins. I think Carrick likes having some 1v1 options wide like Amad.
Watkins if available around £20-£30m would be handy.
I can see the logic of Toney wages permitting.
Ineos have had 18 months in charge of football operations and in that time very few have improved and much like the Glazer’s also did we’ve seen that Ineos send out briefs to make out they’re being proactive but are massively dithering instead or chasing statement signings despite financially lowballing.
I don’t see Berrada as much of an upgrade on Woodward though and I’ve said the similarities between them are much closer than most choose to see, both specialise in the financial/business side of football yet have zero experience in being a CEO and making footballing decisions.
I’ve always said I’d have loved Berrada to have come in to oversee the business side as sponsorship and commercial is where he excels and is one of the best around then Jean Claude Blanc as CEO which is the role he successfully has at Juve and PSG then an experienced Director Of Football putting all the pieces together in the football department.
What I’m worried about for this coming season is that Ineos and Berrada are setting Carrick up to fail instead of kicking on from last season as we’re at least another midfielder and a left back short and if it all goes wrong again injury wise then it’ll be Carrick that’s gone, regardless of the finances the free agents and loans are there to be looked at.
With us having Cunha, Rashford and Dorgu in the squad there’s no chance we’re signing a left winger mate.
Welbeck for a year or two isn't looking so preposterous now is it.
so sesko not looking great to start the season, just a weird ass situation with a seemingly minor thing lasting forever. Something has to be going on there we arent privy to. Only 9 we have right now is mbuemo. If something happens to him we are so screwed. Imagine having to rely on zirkzee to lead the line for a month or something. Hopefully the lack of urgency from the club is just because sesko isnt as serious at it seems (which considering going on month 4 or whatever would be interesting to say the least)
It is in my book, you're just lowering your standards if you've changed your mind!
I haven't changed mine.
Oh no, I meant if others had. I know you were keen, which is fair enough.
i was shocked that anyone thought it was anything but a good idea. There is no better ROI in football than spending 5m on a player who can deliver 10-15 goals in the world's most competitive league.
Pretty dumb if we weren't even in for him
He'll only do that playing a full season though. He started 26 games and played 37 to get to that. I'm not sure you can guarentee he'll deliver that many goals, playing a bit part role for us.
Even 7 or 8 league goals would have been useful. Mbeumo has 3 goals and Zirkzee 2 goals in pre-season. All the rest of our goals have come from young players unlikely to have too much involved in the actual season (Lacey maybe an exception who got 1 goal against Rosenberg).
I really think people should be much more concerned by the lack of goals in our team with Sesko out. Remember we've lost Casemiro who got 9 goals for us last season too. Huge pressure on Mbeumo to deliver in pretty much every game as it stands
I don’t think we will touch him now when he’s up in court for head butting someone
Said it all summer and before. We could have had him for less than 5m. Great cover for a year and would have been a good mentor for young players
Rashford is better than Jackson and most of the other strikers we're being linked with. Sesko/Mbeumo/Rashford/Cunha/Zirkzee can all play there, an embarrassment of riches really. IMO Left back and another midfielder in that order are what we need.
Oh no, I'm definitely in favour of getting a forward. I didn't think it was as big of a priority, but I think pre season confirmed the drop off from the big names is huge. I don't think Welbeck is in anyway the solution to that.
Would like to sign a striker, but given that funds aren't unlimited and that we have the following Plan B options behind Sesko -- Mbeumo, Cunha, Rashford and Zirkzee -- what we need more than a striker is a LB. And for many, one more midfielder more than one more striker.
It was such an obvious solution, the only reason I can imagine we didn't go for it is because we haven't shifted Rashford on.
I think another midfielder is a much, much bigger priority than a striker.
I don't absolutely love our options up front behind Sesko but I think they're probably fine, even if Zirkzee does leave.
I would've liked a forward going into the summer window and still would now, but I feel like it's the signing the club are most likely to compromise on if we're only looking at signing one or two more players.
Carrick seems to like Mbeumo as an option up front and chose to play him ahead of Sesko on a few occasions last season. I can see the logic in moving Mbeumo centrally from time to time with Amad or Lacey starting on the wing if there really isn't a forward who will move the needle for us. I'm sure that position will be cemented if Zirkzee and/or Rashford end up staying too.
I'm hanging with you. Do we go big with an 80m buy to start over Santos and Tielemans or do we go with a journeyman like Berge for 45m to fill in behind Santos and Tielemans?
Let's assume Mount no longer exists.
Given the options available, I'd probably go with the latter.
I actually feel that, between Andrey Santos, Mainoo, and Tielemans we have a pretty strong starting midfield pairing with any two of those three. The issues as I see are twofold:
1. We'd be one injury away from a major problem, and two from a complete crisis.
2. I think at present, there's a tonne of pressure on Andrey Santos to deliver immediately. I'd sooner he be allowed to develop with slightly less weight on his shoulders, given that he's yet to play as a regular starter at a club even close to our level. I think we have a potential gem on our hands with him so I'd hate to see him crushed under the weight of expectations because he's thrown straight in the deep end.
I think Sander Berge would solve both of those problems more than adequately. He's not a signing to light up the league but he's a good defensive midfielder with several seasons of Premier League football to his name. He won't be coming in as such a big name/ego that he'll be throwing a strop when he's not playing but he is, in my view, very capable of playing at the level required to be useful for us as a starter.
Of the options left, I think Berge might be my top choice.
Jackson is a forward who will do the dirty work. run the channels, press when we lose the ball and all the other stuff a lazy sh*t like rashford won't do
I'd swap them in a heartbeat.
Two injuries away, right? Say Mainoo goes down...we'd still have Santos and Teilemans, right? And if two of any three in any club go down, it's a massive problem...but how deep do we really need to be? And at this point I'm going to resurrect Mount among the living, a luxury which most clubs don't have.
Tons of pressure on Santos, no doubt, but pressure is what you sign up for when you play for Manchester United. Not even Arsenal players deal with anything like the pressure that United players have to deal with every day.
Berge would be a nice squad man addition behind Mainoo, Santos, Teilemans and Mount, but my question is whether it's really a good investment to spend 45m on a fifth choice central midfielder when we already have Collyer to serve as our fifth choice CB?
Worth a punt at £40m?
No way.
If your criteria is elbowing players in the head and fouling them, then yes. Best in the business. Wouldn't say no to a loan with an option if cash is tight, but if we're spending £40m, you can obviously get better.
I think in the right environment, he would calm down. Carrick would be the man to sort that issue out I suspect
No.
Didn't have an issue with us being interested in him when his price was below market value due to a release clause. But after the season he just had, handing Chelsea a £10m profit on him would be insane.
Yeah, I don't think he's unsaveable, so a loan would be fine. But we simply can't be taking that big of a risk at that fee.
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