yes... try looking at Liverpool and Chelsea for starters. Probably even the likes of Villa and EvdertonDoes anyone think any manager gets 100% of their 1st targets or something?
ESPN: Man United missed all of Solskjaer's targets including Sancho, Grealish - sources
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Lots of papers have now picked this up, not surprisingly. Our club is a fecking shambles. so embarrssing
To be fair, we finished the 18/19 season with 66 points. Ole then got the investment he wanted in our defence, to the tune of £150m followed by big money for Bruno, and proceeded to hit the same points tally once again. Luckily that saw us in 3rd place.
So to imply we need investment to improve, when he spent over £200m last summer and saw no improvement on the previous year, is a bit misleading. Not only that but we had to go on a ridiculous run just to achieve what was one of our worst points tallies in PL history, after a horrendous first half of the season.
The bottom line is this squad of players should be doing much better than they are. We needed investment to challenge for titles, but he still has expectations to get something out of these lot.
These “journalists” are hardly ever worth listening too, they were so obviously in the dark during the Sancho saga and everything they say is guess work.
Honestly the easiest way to deal with them is to completely ignore them, if I don’t see it as a concrete story on BBC then I treat it with the upmost scepticism at this point.
Protect your sanity my dear fellows.
Honestly the easiest way to deal with them is to completely ignore them, if I don’t see it as a concrete story on BBC then I treat it with the upmost scepticism at this point.
Protect your sanity my dear fellows.
Exactly. I'm getting sick of some fans defending our indefensible owners and CEO.
I feel that too. That's the most frustrating part. Feeling we're 4 signings off maybe winning the title again. Felt like that before Jose's 3rd season too.
Twice in 4 years we've definitely missed the boat to capitalise on progress and momentum. Seems we don't want to speculate to accumulate more.
That's a clear sign of lack in ambitions of Woodward and his team on the recruitment side of things. I'd love to know the truth whether it was Woodwards shitness in the market or the Glazers not wanting to spend that fecked Jose and Ole over.
This is ridiculous. Those signings would've cost well over £200m. If that was really Ole's transfer plan then he was being daft. A good manager should know the financial limitations of the club and work within that. Why didn't he have other options too?
You think he'd have learnt from just going for the two most obvious, expensive targets in AWB and 'Arry last summer that it's not always the best approach. I can't understand how our manager and his staff can only come up with 2 fecking options; Graelish and Sancho i.e. the two most obvious ones that would cost an absolute bomb.
I also like how people blame the board for not having a backup to Sancho when Dortmund said mid August was the deadline, as if it's the board, not the manager and staff, are the ones who should have alternatives set in stone when unsurprisingly you can't just go and poach the best teenager in the world for less than €120m. Shock, horror.
You think he'd have learnt from just going for the two most obvious, expensive targets in AWB and 'Arry last summer that it's not always the best approach. I can't understand how our manager and his staff can only come up with 2 fecking options; Graelish and Sancho i.e. the two most obvious ones that would cost an absolute bomb.
I also like how people blame the board for not having a backup to Sancho when Dortmund said mid August was the deadline, as if it's the board, not the manager and staff, are the ones who should have alternatives set in stone when unsurprisingly you can't just go and poach the best teenager in the world for less than €120m. Shock, horror.
Not surprised at all. This is the Man Utd cycle : Appoint new manager - Buy him players - Get top 4 - Dont back him - Fall out of top 4 - Sack the manager. That process is repeating for years now.
Yeah that article reeks of putting rumours together to make up a story that isn't even sensational. We all knew we wanted Sancho and Grealish but cost was an issue for the club and the latter was overpriced.
Having to drop down to second choice on the list isn't any cause for concern. That's exactly how it's supposed to work with our lists and then the board do their thing.
We were obviously never getting a CB this summer after only just blowing 80 million there.
Having to drop down to second choice on the list isn't any cause for concern. That's exactly how it's supposed to work with our lists and then the board do their thing.
We were obviously never getting a CB this summer after only just blowing 80 million there.
Apparently we can only spend a certain amount, and that amount is overseen by the Glazers.
Ultimately it was their decision to not spend on Sancho, Grealish, etc. I doubt Woodward would NOT like to get Sancho and Grealish, given it would have saved him a lot of face. So no doubt, it was a Glazer decision that we had to go for budget options.
There is nothing unachievable about Ake, Upemacano, and Grealish. Maybe Sancho was too far but you are talking like his asked for Ronaldo, Messi and Mbappe.
Klopp's first choice wasn't Salah but Julian Brandt. Took the transfer committee a long time to convince him. They didn't get Van Dijk straightaway in the summer of 2017 even though they wanted him. As for Chelsea: remember Mourinho's eggs and omelettes poetry way back then? Remember their 2015 transfer window? No club on earth ever gets all their first choice targets. Even Real Madrid have to wait sometimes, like they had to for Ronaldo.
And, well, if Liverpool's list of targets had been Sancho, Upamecano, and Grealish this summer, they wouldn't have got either. I do not know if Solskjaer actually insisted on getting these players; it's hard to see him forcefully insisting on anything, to be honest. If he did, however, then the club is at fault for not explaining it to him, gently and patiently, that what he wants is fecking ridiculous.
It is, in my opinion, a more realistic scenario that Solskjaer wanted at least one of these three but he and the club quickly realised that Grealish is massively overpriced and Upamecano isn't leaving Leipzig this summer. The club's enormous mistake afterwards was wasting two months on the Sancho pursuit which was never going to happen if we weren't prepared to pay the €120m. They should have realised at the start of September at the latest that Dortmund aren't going to change their minds, and secured other targets who then would have been available for the start of the season.
Can't believe there are still people peddling the shit that Mourinho wasn't backed after spending over 400m and whatever Sanchez and Ibra cost while increasing the wage bill to astronomical figures, no manager in the history of Manchester United has probably been backed as much as him.
The reason why we need a DOF is not because he would provide unlimited transfer budget. But whe would spend the money more wisely so that the next manager won’t have to buy a new squad to match his philosophy.
Our main problem is that Woodward hired completely different managers since Fergie left. Every manager was backed in their first year, not so much in the second year. Noone could finish the rebuild, and the squad became unbalanced. Some players bought for LVG, some for Mourinho or Ole, Moyes only got Fellaini and Mata. A DOF would make sure that the managers he hires need similar players and he could finish the rebuilding process regardless of managers.
Maguire? A flop? Some of you have the memories of goldfish.
I distinctly remember him being man of the match in a must win game against Leicester all of a few months ago that got us champions League football. That alone pays for the fee. As well as being our best defender and one of the best defenders in the league last season overall.
Our problems scoring goals outside penalties right now if you ask me.
I distinctly remember him being man of the match in a must win game against Leicester all of a few months ago that got us champions League football. That alone pays for the fee. As well as being our best defender and one of the best defenders in the league last season overall.
Our problems scoring goals outside penalties right now if you ask me.
Which is all fine and well except for the part that LVG and Mourinho took over after a period of five years of criminal underinvestment. So they had to produce a whole new squad and do it fast. And each had their own ideas.
So, I do not see why it was unreasonable for Mourinho to be backed again in 2018 after showing clear progress in his first two seasons.
Alex Shaw knows absolutely nothing about Man Utd's intentions in the transfer market. ESPN in general are as bad as it gets.
Miguel Delaney is known as one of the biggest BS merchants out there, Mark Ogden is another shite-talker.
It's embarrassing that so many fans are taking this article seriously. Liverpool dropped their interest in Werner because they felt 50 million was too much FFS.
It's clear as day that signing Sancho depended on offloading Pogba to Juventus for big money, or at leastDortmund going down to a realistic price such as 80 million. We dropped our interest in Grealish 10 months ago once we got quoted 80 million and went for Bruno instead. Grealish was never on our summer list after we bought Bruno. Why would we buy Grealish? To play where? Most ridiculous BS article ever.
Miguel Delaney is known as one of the biggest BS merchants out there, Mark Ogden is another shite-talker.
It's embarrassing that so many fans are taking this article seriously. Liverpool dropped their interest in Werner because they felt 50 million was too much FFS.
It's clear as day that signing Sancho depended on offloading Pogba to Juventus for big money, or at leastDortmund going down to a realistic price such as 80 million. We dropped our interest in Grealish 10 months ago once we got quoted 80 million and went for Bruno instead. Grealish was never on our summer list after we bought Bruno. Why would we buy Grealish? To play where? Most ridiculous BS article ever.
Brilliant
To be fair, you could gave built the opinions in that article off of posts on here...and we genuinely know feck all.
I guess there are two main factors that resulted in us not getting our primary targets, if true:
1. Money. We do not have enough of it at our disposal to afford buying Sancho and Grealish. Covid times are rough and epidemiological situation is getting worse again.
2. Board may want to see that Ole can actually maximize players' performances. Ighalo seemed like a safe transfer to rest our frontline but contributed nothing lately, the longer Maguire and AWB are playing the worse they look, Dan James' tunnel visionitis is developing really fast.
They may think that it is a safer bet to wait till winter break and see how things pan out.
1. Money. We do not have enough of it at our disposal to afford buying Sancho and Grealish. Covid times are rough and epidemiological situation is getting worse again.
2. Board may want to see that Ole can actually maximize players' performances. Ighalo seemed like a safe transfer to rest our frontline but contributed nothing lately, the longer Maguire and AWB are playing the worse they look, Dan James' tunnel visionitis is developing really fast.
They may think that it is a safer bet to wait till winter break and see how things pan out.
That is also true.
Olle Should resign in Disgust, this way he holds the moral high ground, continues to be loved by the fans, and will be able to get a job elsewhere.
If he stays we all know he will be the Glazers fall guy and be sacked in a few months when this shit show gets worse.
If he stays we all know he will be the Glazers fall guy and be sacked in a few months when this shit show gets worse.
These articles should be banned here. They are pointless rubbish written by journalists who just want to discredit Manchester United.
Not even Manchester City, them of free money, have spent big . Madrid PSG and Barcelona the same. Why do people think United would have spent 200 million in a covid summer?
I even doubt Upamecano is on United' wish list. Who in their right mind would pay 80 million for Grealish? I would rather pay 50 million for Declan Rice. He is more of what United need than Grealish. Someone to take over from Matic who I think should not be here beyond this season. His legs are gone.
There are more players like Grealish in the English game, including our academy, that could cost 30 million. What is scarce is the specialist players. Central defender, Defending Midfielder and Striker. These are positions worth spending 80 million on.
ESPN article is the usual ABU drivel. They can't write about Sancho and BVB deadline now. Lets find something for click bait. I would say close this thread. Pointless discussion.
Manager doesn't always get what he wants, shocker. Both Sancho and Grealish were ridiculous prices and I think Ole probably was very set on Sancho - rightly so. The idea that Dortmund et al are bemused we didn't pay the 120m quoted immediately is odd in itself. This is all just exacerbated because we've started so poorly. The fact articles about VDB regretting his decision are already coming out, says everything you need to know about the medias line of argument.
Few points to consider:
1. Grealish/Sancho/Upamecano would have cost 200M plus. True, so at least get him one?
2. Make it clear earlier than last day of transfers that he can't get one for the position he needs so that the club can move to next option.
Case in point Grealish. Thankfully, Villa stayed up and Grealish quickly signed a contract. And so we could move on to VdB. I really am thankful that Villa forced us, literally, to move on. Else we would have again be stuck with a long drawn out saga and missing out on even VdB.
3. 'Manager and his staff' making shortlist! I know this is Ole bashing season, but let's not misrepresent facts. There is a well defined scouting network and then a transfer committee - of which Ole is a part of. That's what we have been told umpteen times.
And of the names given for the position, of course any manager would suggest the best one for the team.
4. Blame manager and staff not the board!! For not having alternatives. Really?
Our issue this transfer season, was clearly that we didn't move to our alternatives sooner. And hoping it will work out. Especially in the RW position, where we clearly needed, and still need, a first teamer.
And this is on the negotiating / cheque signing lot.
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Criticize Ole for what it's worth, especially how we have started this condensed - grueling season.
But this blooper real of a tranfer season, is a result of efficiencies of the senior management at the club. The business and negotiating side of the club.
Do you really believe that you, Zexstream, would resign from your absolute dream job just because you hit a few speedbumps along the way?
This squad now is in a better position than it was 12 months ago so there is every chance that we can go on to have a good season.
In all honesty you know feck all too as do I and probably 99.999% of this forum
In all honesty Espn probably got those names by scouring redcafe's transfer forum
True, that is the problem too as they are all used to operate under different conditions. Still, we need to try and get an absolute elite of what is out there and stop pretending that coaching hasn't been a major issue during these last 7 years also.
Get a progressive coach and hope the board won't piss him off in 2 years time as I don't see the change of structure anytime soon. It is too early in the season, so I would give Ole some time to see if there is some progress, but am not overly optimistic.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know which journalists are total BS merchants and make things up as they go along. If it was Simon Stone who released the article then I'd be more concerned.
You should change your username from Ry Ry to CryCry, because there's fans on here who will cry even if we'd bought Mbappe and Lewandowski but never bought Haaland and Sancho too.
The difference is journalists make stories up for click bait. There is no advantage for a fan to make things up unless they are trying to be an ITK.
Fans on this forum debate and discuss things, pulling information from different sources.
As the poster said, it is obvious that we dropped our interest in Grealish because of the price tag, you may think that is fake, so be it.
It was also said by James Cooper, who is very close to Manchester United that nobody is paying £100m for a player in this window. Fabrizio Romano, a very well known journalists trusted by alot of people also said, unless Manutd pay £108m they wont get Sancho, he also says he does not think Manutd will pay that.
So don't have a go at fans on this forum, they probably have more information than some journalists.
If the club weren't going to get Sancho then Grealish was a far better option than Van de Beek.
You can see Ole trying to shoehorn him into a wide forward role already and it completely doesn't suit him.
Travelling to Newcastle in the next game, a front 3 of Greenwood, Rashford and Grealish would be far better than what the club has now.
Grealish and Cavani would have been a really good summer and would still have left room to go after Sancho next summer. If Cavani still has the legs you let Mata and Jesse go. If not, Greenwood could move to the striker role.
It was a shambolic transfer window that lacked any semblence of planning.
How dare the club not spend some 220m to try and make Ole successful? Sure he squandered 145m last summer on very ordinary players. But who gives a feck about that?
Sancho, Grealish and Upamecano were vital for Ole to avoid having him ridiculed by Hodgson and Mourinho
Sancho, Grealish and Upamecano were vital for Ole to avoid having him ridiculed by Hodgson and Mourinho
United were forced to chase down a massive deficit of points to get third thanks to the manager receiving a priority transfer target 6 months too late.
If you think that does not indicate success in terms of who he wanted to sign, then the word has simply lost meaning.....
Rather we need a proper pre season and priority signings in place before a season kicks off to stand any chance of beating teams that had a proper pre season and had played at least 4 competitive matches before facing us..
Its utterly hilarious that people have seen the likes of PSG, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, armed with better squad resources and settled coaching, slump to shock and embarrassing early season defeats due to an utter lack of pre season, yet imagine Manchester United should some how be immune. Especially when armed with a squad with the self same glaring weakness of the previous season without the required match fitness and pre season tactical work to hide it
Furthermore, lets get one thing very clear. The likes of Grealish, Upamecano and Sancho were needed to build on finish third last season. Anyone pedaling the argument that they should not be needed just because we have slumped to two early season unlikely defeats is simply beyond unserious.
Ole spent 145m the summer before this. He then spent around 50m in January and then 40m prior to this season started. Despite that he got his arse handled by Palace, Brighton and spurs. I am not saying that the board shouldn't do better. However ole should ask himself if he deserves to be trusted with huge sums of money especially after the mess he brought in last summer. He certainly can't expect united to sort each problem we have with 50m-100m a player signingUnited were forced to chase down a massive deficit of points to get third thanks to the manager receiving a priority transfer target 6 months too late.
If you think that does not indicate success in terms of who he wanted to sign, then the word has simply lost meaning.....
Rather we need a proper pre season and priority signings in place before a season kicks off to stand any chance of beating teams that had a proper pre season and had played at least 4 competitive matches before facing us..
Its utterly hilarious that people have seen the likes of PSG, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, armed with better squad resources and settled coaching, slump to shock and embarrassing early season defeats due to an utter lack of pre season, yet imagine Manchester United should some how be immune. Especially when armed with a squad with the self same glaring weakness of the previous season without the required match fitness and pre season tactical work to hide it
It's like the 3rd place in the league never happened.
A good listen on how piss poor Ed/Matt are in negotiating transfers. They literally create problems for themselves and more than that, they are creating enemies against the club all across europe. It's so stupid. They prance around arrogantly expecting the rest of the football world to kow tow to them. They literally don't know how to negotiate transfers.
It did happen. United spent nearly 200m and it ended trophy less and third (which could have easily been 5th). Our main competitors for third place were Chelsea who faced a transfer ban + the loss of Hazard and great club Leicester who lost Maguire. Despite spending 130m in defence United's defence conceded 36 goals which is significantly better then the season before (when all hell went loose) but was worse then the two years prior. It had now conceded 11 goals despite we having played minions such as Brighton, Palace and Spurs.
Please tell me how is that good enough?
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Good post.
People act as if we got some 75/80 points last season. In terms of points were were miles behind Mourinho's 2nd placed finish and more like the crap years of Moyes, LVG and Mourinho. I think it was just about enough and the latter parts of the season gave us all hope but let's not pretend last season was some sort of feat, and that the manager hasn't been backed.
He's now spent around 275 million now so we should accept some progress and excellence from our manager.