Does the club and fans need to get humble and look past the flashy manager/players?

[Lee565]

We seem to believe that we are still up there with european elite clubs and boast that we are big club that the best players and managers want still join and we have thrown money at all these star players like varane, casimero, onana, Maguire, sanchez, ronaldo, di maria, mata, Mount, Antony, pogba, martial, bissaka, lukaku, sancho and the same with managers like lvg, ten hag and mourinho who have all produced dreadful football despite their salary and transfer kitty's.

Then there is the fact that we persuade players to stay at the club with massive jump up in wages like rashford, martial and de gea and plenty more who we ended up struggling to move on because of how we got over excited with dishing out silly contracts to players and mangers for a purple patch.

I look at Newcastle who have callum Wilson and what I would give to have him as our striker over martial, hojlund or rashford. We snubbed trippier because he was not worth 25 million but at the same time we were happy to spunk 45 million on bissaka...., there is bowen who produces a better output than sancho and Antony and you have Newcastle, arsenal, Chelsea, spurs and Brighton all with more competent goalkeepers than us at far less of a transfer price and even our fans were turning their noses up at Raya and sanchez this summer in favour of flavour of the month onana based on his one off match against man City.

Even with managers we would snub good mid table managers at the time like potchettino in favour name value of lvg and even now we are looking at more big name managers like conte, zidane if ten hag got the boot.

Is it not time for the club and fans face reality of that we not the powerhouse we once were and that their is no quick fix of throwing loads of money at the latest hyped up youngster or big name that is looking for a bump in his wages or the latest trendy manger that is being linked to dozens of top half premier league teams.

Should we just humble ourselves and look for either good mid to lower table manager and players from Europe's top leagues or from a top side in one of the far less coveted footballing leagues like Croatia, Belgium, the championship etc.. and also start moving on the varane's, sancho's, casimero's and rashford's as quick as possible even if it is at best just a loan due to their silly wages to put them in the shop window and hope they have a good spell?

 

[TheNewEra]

No. We need to get past the Glazers.

The entire sporting operation is subpar. We have good unmotivated players just shit around them.

If there was a cutthroat no nonsense structure around them, we would be fine.

10 years since SAF standards and everything at the club dropped since then.

Even if United brought in Pep tomorrow and kept everything else the same we would still not win titles because the rest is still rotten.

 

[McGrathsipan]

The team is full of mid table players doing mid table things. On big juicy contracts as they have good agents.

Just because some plays for United doesn't make them world class any more. Maybe that was true under Ferguson but those days are long long gone.

Player power has ruled old Trafford since Ferguson retired. That one thing needs to change.

People need to lower expectations wildly.

 

[miliebrowndivorceattorney]

Indeed. The following players need to get sacked or pushed out aspa

rashford
sancho
fernandes
amraat
van de beek
casemiro
lindegard
pelistri
martial
mctominay

im undecied about onana, but was he really the best football playing keeper we could get?

we need
top striker at 9
top player at 10
top centre back right and one for the bench
a top right winger
a top dm
a top 8
maybe a left back.

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

We seem to believe that we are still up there with european elite clubs and boast that we are big club that the best players and managers want still join and we have thrown money at all these star players like varane, casimero, onana, Maguire, sanchez, ronaldo, di maria, mata, Mount, Antony, pogba, martial, bissaka, lukaku, sancho and the same with managers like lvg, ten hag and mourinho who have all produced dreadful football despite their salary and transfer kitty's.

But many of these aren't star players. Maguire, Martial, Wan-Bissaka, Antony, Onana... those are just guys.

 

[Redstain]

Definitely not

 

[Ali Dia]

If we’d managed to not totally cock up getting Bellingham and Haaland and Sancho had settled. If we’d not turned our noses up at Alvarez, Enzo and Caciedo. It’s all based around failure to recruit well or ever from a position of strength, leaving positions way under stocked for years and becoming desperate (DM, LB, RW, ST, B2B young CB and so on) while the likes of Bruno DDG Martinez Pogba and Rashford go through their best form in their prime here we leave them hanging out to dry carrying us with a mish mash of dross around them. Signing players like Ronaldo, Wout, Cavani, Zlatan, Matic, Ighalo, Casemiro, Varane and so on… it’s a total and utter mess. If we can get back to an ok footing with FFP then a total revamp of the recruitment should see us at least back on the right track.

Get one Bellingham/Camavinga/Haaland level youngster of the next generation and market ourselves as the prime location for young players again. Then we should see something better. As things stand we are screwed. For example if Real or Barca came in for Sancho or Pogba they’d have gone there, no doubt about it. We are signing these guys because we are the only ones who can pay. If we are the only show in town then reign in the wages and make contracts heavily incentivised.

 

[Acquire Me]

No. We need to get past the Glazers.

The entire sporting operation is subpar. We have good unmotivated players just shit around them.

If there was a cutthroat no nonsense structure around them, we would be fine.

10 years since SAF standards and everything at the club dropped since then.

Even if United brought in Pep tomorrow and kept everything else the same we would still not win titles because the rest is still rotten.

This and hopefully the era of Ineos and Sir Jim will begin shortly.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

We seem to believe that we are still up there with european elite clubs and boast that we are big club that the best players and managers want still join and we have thrown money at all these star players like varane, casimero, onana, Maguire, sanchez, ronaldo, di maria, mata, Mount, Antony, pogba, martial, bissaka, lukaku, sancho and the same with managers like lvg, ten hag and mourinho who have all produced dreadful football despite their salary and transfer kitty's.

Then there is the fact that we persuade players to stay at the club with massive jump up in wages like rashford, martial and de gea and plenty more who we ended up struggling to move on because of how we got over excited with dishing out silly contracts to players and mangers for a purple patch.

I look at Newcastle who have callum Wilson and what I would give to have him as our striker over martial, hojlund or rashford. We snubbed trippier because he was not worth 25 million but at the same time we were happy to spunk 45 million on bissaka...., there is bowen who produces a better output than sancho and Antony and you have Newcastle, arsenal, Chelsea, spurs and Brighton all with more competent goalkeepers than us at far less of a transfer price and even our fans were turning their noses up at Raya and sanchez this summer in favour of flavour of the month onana based on his one off match against man City.

Even with managers we would snub good mid table managers at the time like potchettino in favour name value of lvg and even now we are looking at more big name managers like conte, zidane if ten hag got the boot.

Is it not time for the club and fans face reality of that we not the powerhouse we once were and that their is no quick fix of throwing loads of money at the latest hyped up youngster or big name that is looking for a bump in his wages or the latest trendy manger that is being linked to dozens of top half premier league teams.

Should we just humble ourselves and look for either good mid to lower table manager and players from Europe's top leagues or from a top side in one of the far less coveted footballing leagues like Croatia, Belgium, the championship etc.. and also start moving on the varane's, sancho's, casimero's and rashford's as quick as possible even if it is at best just a loan due to their silly wages to put them in the shop window and hope they have a good spell?

I mean no I don't think we should lower our standards completely, people have already done that themselves by convincing themselve Scott McTominay is a good squad player and the like. And spending big on a top young prospect can often be good business SO LONG AS you're scouting network and transfer structure has done the appropriate background work on them.

As far as managers go, no it's stupid to just shrug and go get someone that's never achieved anything of note. That's ridiculous. In fact the pursuing of Ten Hag was actually finally a sound process in decision making and everything he showed at Ajax was promising as well as having a good European record. The problem is he seemingly came here and decided to go to a completely different system mirroring the "United way" and fecking sucks at coaching said system, along with the absurd power we gave him to dictate transfers and targets.

 

[Chairman Steve]

Glazers are responsible for the woes. The amount of money they’ve spent is not an issue. It’s how they’ve spent it, which is seemingly what a lot of outsiders and opposition fans don’t get. They are terrible spenders and very bad decision makers.

And it all filters down to all the issues we currently have, like overpaid average players who are somehow still here, a constant revolving door of managers, no football directors ensuring continuity, a squad littered with players from up to 4 different managers, player power and leaks seemingly rife. We’re still run like we’re in 2003 when we were the frontrunners with marketing and money making but we’ve been very slow to evolve since then, mainly because the Glazers want to milk us and they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s pretty fecking common knowledge now among football fans that they’re a joke.

This INEOS thing cannot come quick enough. The day it’s made official will be a great day hopefully, especially if a lot of chaff at board/management level is removed and replaced with INEOS people. I think Ratcliffe is our Jack Walker/John Hall where hes going to jump in with two feet and do it for personal legacy reasons as well as raise INEOS‘ global reputation in the vein that Red Bull have raised their profile by associating themselves with sporting excellence.

 

[Red00012]

Indeed. The following players need to get sacked or pushed out aspa

rashford
sancho
fernandes
amraat
van de beek
casemiro
lindegard
pelistri
martial
mctominay

im undecied about onana, but was he really the best football playing keeper we could get?

we need
top striker at 9
top player at 10
top centre back right and one for the bench
a top right winger
a top dm
a top 8
maybe a left back.

Your English teacher would be proud

 

[Snow]

Should we just humble ourselves and look for either good mid to lower table manager and players from Europe's top leagues or from a top side in one of the far less coveted footballing leagues like Croatia, Belgium, the championship etc.. and also start moving on the varane's, sancho's, casimero's and rashford's as quick as possible even if it is at best just a loan due to their silly wages to put them in the shop window and hope they have a good spell?

That won't change anything for the better. The expectations have been established. Even if it's just reaching top 4 (or 5) for our current owners there's still plenty of competiton just to reach that level these days. With that comes pressure, not to mention the incredible media pressure that United phase and all other clubs in the country are free of. Some of our transfers will simply fail because players won't handle that. The recruitment the past years has been such that those transfers has increased a lot since SAF and there are various reasons why. The top reason is that SAF was simply better. He vetted the players and looked into their personality, their homelife, parents etc. He kept players professional and team first above all. That's all gone. Bad players get extentions and clog up our wage budget. Our transfer budget now suffers because it hinges on said players getting sold.

The club will be a mess until the top will change. It won't necessarily get better when that happens but it definitely won't get better until that happens.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

I'd be happy if we never spent over £30m on a player until we prove we can be competent in the transfer market/ as a football club

 

[Red_toad]

We seem to believe that we are still up there with european elite clubs and boast that we are big club that the best players and managers want still join and we have thrown money at all these star players like varane, casimero, onana, Maguire, sanchez, ronaldo, di maria, mata, Mount, Antony, pogba, martial, bissaka, lukaku, sancho and the same with managers like lvg, ten hag and mourinho who have all produced dreadful football despite their salary and transfer kitty's.

So you're advocating Moyes back with maybe a side order of the no nonsense Fellaini battling midfield mentality.

When in reality we need a Director of Football, who develops a better transfer and recruitment policy.

 

[Red-17]

The club needs to set a sustainable wages policy even if our recruitment standards drops and even if we lose a few big name players to big clubs. We are paying twice and three times what other clubs are for players who perform consistently worse. Rashford even on best form is not worth the contract he wanted. If he didn’t want to sign, then sell him and find a replacement.

So many examples of players being signed and re-signed on ridiculous money who are either over the hill or happy to ride the bench and collect a paycheck. There’s no reason some of the signings we make end up on tripled or quadrupled wages when joining us. They didn’t suddenly become better players because they signed for us.

 

[NinjaZombie]

The club needs to set a sustainable wages policy even if our recruitment standards drops and even if we lose a few big name players to big clubs. We are paying twice and three times what other clubs are for players who perform consistently worse. Rashford even on best form is not worth the contract he wanted. If he didn’t want to sign, then sell him and find a replacement.

So many examples of players being signed and re-signed on ridiculous money who are either over the hill or happy to ride the bench and collect a paycheck. There’s no reason some of the signings we make end up on tripled or quadrupled wages when joining us. They didn’t suddenly become better players because they signed for us.

This.

There's absolutely no reason to give new signings guaranteed high wages. The wage structure needs to change. Performance related bonuses. If it means missing out on players, then so be it.

 

[Lee565]

So you're advocating Moyes back with maybe a side order of the no nonsense Fellaini battling midfield mentality.

When in reality we need a Director of Football, who develops a better transfer and recruitment policy.

No because moyes way of playing was dreadful, I look at some of the Spanish managers at la liga mid table sides that defeat us constantly because of the way they coach their teams to be technically good in possession or even a manger like Thomas Frank who seems to always be to give the top sides a real test whilst playing good football, it seems like just go for any big name or hyped up manager (ole being the exception because the club got carried away) and ignore what type of football they will bring to the club, surely if ten hag said in the interview I want to be the best transition side, they should have thought twice if they truly evaluated where this club needed to evolve and get back up there with european and premier league top sides.

 

[Lee565]

But many of these aren't star players. Maguire, Martial, Wan-Bissaka, Antony, Onana... those are just guys.

Martial was seen a big young talent which he initially showed, Maguire profile was hyped up off the back of the 2018 world cup and was even linked with man City in the same summer, bissaka was flavour of the season and constantly praised for being great young defensive right back, hence why we had to pay a stupid fee for him, half of the Ajax squad profile was being raised due to media links of ten hag wanting to bring them to united and so they decided to start asking for 60+ million and eventually 80 million for a player that did sod all even in the the Dutch league, alarm bells should have been ringing to not sign him

 

[Tyrion]

Fan expectation has nothing to do with a club's success. You can "humble" yourself unless you're in robes and self-flagellating, it won't effect the team.

 

[Acheron]

You do seem to have a lot of fans with a pretty weird perception of their, basically what you just described but I don't think the problems stem out of online fans. There is a culture problem within the team in the way you hand out contracts to overhyped players and how the team overpays for them. It is evident a lot of the players you sign are only attracted by the huge salaries and that in itself is a big problem.

 

[golden_blunder]

Indeed. The following players need to get sacked or pushed out aspa

rashford
sancho
fernandes
amraat
van de beek
casemiro
lindegard
pelistri
martial
mctominay

im undecied about onana, but was he really the best football playing keeper we could get?

we need
top striker at 9
top player at 10
top centre back right and one for the bench
a top right winger
a top dm
a top 8
maybe a left back.

 

[Iker Quesadillas]

Martial was seen a big young talent which he initially showed, Maguire profile was hyped up off the back of the 2018 world cup and was even linked with man City in the same summer, bissaka was flavour of the season and constantly praised for being great young defensive right back, hence why we had to pay a stupid fee for him, half of the Ajax squad profile was being raised due to media links of ten hag wanting to bring them to united and so they decided to start asking for 60+ million and eventually 80 million for a player that did sod all even in the the Dutch league, alarm bells should have been ringing to not sign him

Yes, they were talented, and well-regarded. But not stars. These are signings that the clubs you mentioned have made; Alexander Isak cost 63 million pounds, for example.

It's near-impossible to be a top club, only sign on the cheap, and be successful. The success rate will be too low.

 

[IrishMcD]

Indeed. The following players need to get sacked or pushed out aspa

rashford
sancho
fernandes
amraat
van de beek
casemiro
lindegard
pelistri
martial
mctominay

im undecied about onana, but was he really the best football playing keeper we could get?

we need
top striker at 9
top player at 10
top centre back right and one for the bench
a top right winger
a top dm
a top 8
maybe a left back.

Lindegard?? How did he sneak back in?

 

[ti vu]

You do seem to have a lot of fans with a pretty weird perception of their, basically what you just described but I don't think the problems stem out of online fans. There is a culture problem within the team in the way you hand out contracts to overhyped players and how the team overpays for them. It is evident a lot of the players you sign are only attracted by the huge salaries and that in itself is a big problem.

This.

Many section of this fanbase is still stuck in big club mentality period under SAF. The issue is that they love to be different like when SAF was still the managers: let SAF deal with the players, just sit back and support. No verbal criticism of our players in and around the stadium however shite they perform. The manager cult syndrome is prominent where our manager can't do no wrong.

Selective favorable comparison to the successful managers using selective stats. You would have thought Ole would be another Klopp, Zidane. Same with ETH is now

Everything starts with the culture. SAF retirement unrooted that culture. It's not only signing players from this age group, only spend this amount, signing British, playing youth, flashy manager, United way manager, negative manager... The rabbit hole runs deeper. This club is run by clueless businessmen, accountants and bankers, who don't understand football.

 

[Plant0x84]

Indeed. The following players need to get sacked or pushed out aspa

rashford
sancho
fernandes
amraat
van de beek
casemiro
lindegard
pelistri
martial
mctominay

What?!

 

[Unam333]

The club needs to set a sustainable wages policy even if our recruitment standards drops and even if we lose a few big name players to big clubs. We are paying twice and three times what other clubs are for players who perform consistently worse. Rashford even on best form is not worth the contract he wanted. If he didn’t want to sign, then sell him and find a replacement.

So many examples of players being signed and re-signed on ridiculoss money who are either over the hill or happy to ride the bench and collect a paycheck. There’s no reason some of the signings we make end up on tripled or quadrupled wages when joining us. They didn’t suddenly become better players because they signed for us.

I have to agree with this one. It doesn't make sense to handle out 350k+ per month contracts. Nobody is worth that amount and if they are worth that money, then they shouldn't end up at United. That's not the direction we should go for. We need to look around and see how much salary the likes of Arsenal and Tottenham handle out to their players.

Also, I strongly believe that every player is up for sale. If they want to stay, but want huge salary then they can leave.

I also don't quite understand why the club gave that huge contract to Sancho. We were the only club who genuinely wanted to sign him, he wanted to join us, so why did we gave him that big fat contract? It doesn't make sense at all.

 

[Jeffthered]

This is a good thread... I think there is a humility that needs to return... the Pogba, Lukaku, Lindgard, Sanchez, Di Maria, Martial era has been very damaging. How many really cared and respected the club? And this attitude showed and affected the culture within the club. I think with football becomin more formulaic, fewer, real genuine stars (Mbappe, CR7, Messi, Kane, Ronaldhino, Haaland level...) we need to be more astute and humble in our signings, whilst developing our youth teams. Too many players are over-rated across football anyway, but that's a seperate discussion.

 

[MackRobinson]

We seem to believe that we are still up there with european elite clubs and boast that we are big club that the best players and managers want still join and we have thrown money at all these star players like varane, casimero, onana, Maguire, sanchez, ronaldo, di maria, mata, Mount, Antony, pogba, martial, bissaka, lukaku, sancho and the same with managers like lvg, ten hag and mourinho who have all produced dreadful football despite their salary and transfer kitty's.

Then there is the fact that we persuade players to stay at the club with massive jump up in wages like rashford, martial and de gea and plenty more who we ended up struggling to move on because of how we got over excited with dishing out silly contracts to players and mangers for a purple patch.

I look at Newcastle who have callum Wilson and what I would give to have him as our striker over martial, hojlund or rashford. We snubbed trippier because he was not worth 25 million but at the same time we were happy to spunk 45 million on bissaka...., there is bowen who produces a better output than sancho and Antony and you have Newcastle, arsenal, Chelsea, spurs and Brighton all with more competent goalkeepers than us at far less of a transfer price and even our fans were turning their noses up at Raya and sanchez this summer in favour of flavour of the month onana based on his one off match against man City.

Even with managers we would snub good mid table managers at the time like potchettino in favour name value of lvg and even now we are looking at more big name managers like conte, zidane if ten hag got the boot.

Is it not time for the club and fans face reality of that we not the powerhouse we once were and that their is no quick fix of throwing loads of money at the latest hyped up youngster or big name that is looking for a bump in his wages or the latest trendy manger that is being linked to dozens of top half premier league teams.

Should we just humble ourselves and look for either good mid to lower table manager and players from Europe's top leagues or from a top side in one of the far less coveted footballing leagues like Croatia, Belgium, the championship etc.. and also start moving on the varane's, sancho's, casimero's and rashford's as quick as possible even if it is at best just a loan due to their silly wages to put them in the shop window and hope they have a good spell?

I agree with you when it comes to players. There seems to be an obsession with signing the most sought-after players rather than building a team first. Klopp and Arteta built solid teams with under-the-radar signings and then spent big to get them over the top (Allison, VVD, Rice).

Managers are a little bit trickier as it's impossible to predict how good they will be when dealing with a new squad. But I would say any manager that doesn't show a willingness to develop the current players or be flexible in transfer targets shouldn't be considered.

 

[Yorkeontop]

As others have alluded to, let's get that new ownership structure going, solutions might be incoming. Although I will say, looking at the history of English football, there's more years of hurt that await us - at least another 5 - no matter how smart we become in the near future.

 

[JPRouve]

It took me a minute but he is thinking about your favorite.

 

[golden_blunder]

It took me a minute but he is thinking about your favorite.

He can’t possibly mean the Danish keeper so my guess is he means Jesse not Linda

 

[Stadjer]

Indeed. The following players need to get sacked or pushed out aspa

rashford
sancho
fernandes
amraat
van de beek
casemiro
lindegard
pelistri
martial
mctominay

im undecied about onana, but was he really the best football playing keeper we could get?

we need
top striker at 9
top player at 10
top centre back right and one for the bench
a top right winger
a top dm
a top 8
maybe a left back.

This reads like it was posted from a bar after the poster drank all the alcohol available in that bar.

 

[JPRouve]

He can’t possibly mean the Danish keeper so my guess is he means Jesse not Linda

No, Lindelof. I think.

 

[Plant0x84]

He can’t possibly mean the Danish keeper so my guess is he means Jesse not Linda

Looking at the post as a whole and all the typos and missing letters I get the impression he was very angry when typing it. A veritable blur of rage filled thumbs!!

Still Lindegaard, Lingard and Lindelof really shouldn’t be being confused at this stage!

 

[Plant0x84]

No, Lindelof. I think.

Being the only player still at the club should give it away!

 

[golden_blunder]

Looking at the post as a whole and all the typos and missing letters I get the impression he was very angry when typing it. A veritable blur of rage filled thumbs!!

Still Lindegaard, Lingard and Lindelof really shouldn’t be being confused at this stage!

All 3 were/are shite so maybe it is easy to be confused. Don’t buy anyone beginning with L, that’s a lesson

 

[Withnail]

We seem to believe that we are still up there with european elite clubs and boast that we are big club that the best players and managers want still join and we have thrown money at all these star players like varane, casimero, onana, Maguire, sanchez, ronaldo, di maria, mata, Mount, Antony, pogba, martial, bissaka, lukaku, sancho and the same with managers like lvg, ten hag and mourinho who have all produced dreadful football despite their salary and transfer kitty's.

Then there is the fact that we persuade players to stay at the club with massive jump up in wages like rashford, martial and de gea and plenty more who we ended up struggling to move on because of how we got over excited with dishing out silly contracts to players and mangers for a purple patch.

I look at Newcastle who have callum Wilson and what I would give to have him as our striker over martial, hojlund or rashford. We snubbed trippier because he was not worth 25 million but at the same time we were happy to spunk 45 million on bissaka...., there is bowen who produces a better output than sancho and Antony and you have Newcastle, arsenal, Chelsea, spurs and Brighton all with more competent goalkeepers than us at far less of a transfer price and even our fans were turning their noses up at Raya and sanchez this summer in favour of flavour of the month onana based on his one off match against man City.

Even with managers we would snub good mid table managers at the time like potchettino in favour name value of lvg and even now we are looking at more big name managers like conte, zidane if ten hag got the boot.

Is it not time for the club and fans face reality of that we not the powerhouse we once were and that their is no quick fix of throwing loads of money at the latest hyped up youngster or big name that is looking for a bump in his wages or the latest trendy manger that is being linked to dozens of top half premier league teams.

Should we just humble ourselves and look for either good mid to lower table manager and players from Europe's top leagues or from a top side in one of the far less coveted footballing leagues like Croatia, Belgium, the championship etc.. and also start moving on the varane's, sancho's, casimero's and rashford's as quick as possible even if it is at best just a loan due to their silly wages to put them in the shop window and hope they have a good spell?

We didn't snub Trippier. He wasn't in a position to move for family reasons. He's said this a number of times.

This whole post is a bit of a mess. I'm not sure why we're talking about Bowen and the concern about Wilson has always been his injury record.

Also Zidane/Conte are not serious options for the club if we get rid of Ten Hag. I'm not sure where you are getting this from. Our recruitment has been poor, granted but a proper structure should take care of that. We all know what the issues are at the club. It's not because the club or the fans need to be more humble.

 

[tomaldinho1]

Im not sure the club really knows what it wants to be - hence why the only vague idea that people mention is United DNA rubbish. I’m also pretty certain the Glazers don’t care enough to ever really try and steer the club in a specific direction, they are happy to be completely hands off and put a stooge in control to oversee things.

 

[lex talionis]

Nothing changes until the Glazers are no longer in control of the club. Under these turds we’vebecome a farcical merchandise marketing operation with football as the hook for eyeballs.

 

[Wolfbot]

I think when your squad isn't performing the best and you need a bit of an overhaul then there's a lot to be said for recruiting known quantities which is something we don't do a lot of.

I'd like to see more stand out players from other Premier League clubs coming through the door as you know they are likely to be able to cut it in the league.

I know the cost can be high for these players, but we often pay a lot of money anyway for players from other leagues who come in and then don't appear to have what it takes to perform to the required standard in the Premier League.

We've had a few PL players in Maguire, Wan Bissaka and Mount who I'd argue were decent at best before we signed them so not great examples.

If you look at Arsenal signing the likes of Rice,Trossard, Jesus...Newcastle with Gordon, Wilson etc. I really do think it might be better to buy a few good players from closer to home in the next windows..players like Bowen, Ferguson, Mitoma, Martinez, Eze, Olise, Luiz, Watkins...these are just some names off the top of my head that I think are probably better than what we've got in our squad at the moment.