Groundhog Day as transfer window excuses arrive

[Ranchero]

"No excuses", were the words used by Ole in advance of a pre-season and a huge transfer window for the club with investment in quality a must if we are ever to think about challenging for titles.

And he was talking about being ready for July 1, when the side went on pre-season.

The reality is we brought in two, a young prospect in Daniel James and Wan Bassaka, a right back with one super season behind him at Crystal Palace.

Since the sojourn to Australia we have been working on one or two deals and after a month and with six days to go till the transfer window slams shut we are again having the same old excuses coming out of Old Trafford.

We have been dithering for too long over Bruno Fernandes and Harry Maguire to the point you sense history repeating itself and that the targets will stay put or go elsewhere.

Now Ole has spoken out about the transfer window which closes in England a few weeks before the other major European leagues.

"I think we have picked the short straw," he said.

We have of course known the situation for some time.

"When we are done and our league starts there are still three more weeks with clubs hovering around your players, I don't think it's a good one for us, no," he added.

And we are now talking about a slow improvement.

"Of course you have to plan for long term but you need results and performances short term as well. But, I've always been that type of manager that I'm thinking about the best for the club in the long run," he said.

"If you only think one or two years down the line, I don't think that's right. My way of managing that's thinking long term and gradually we will improve."

A different tone from the week he arrived when he felt United should be title challengers.

On the club sealing any deals before next Thursday's deadline, he said: "We have been working on a few cases over the summer it's never easy but the club have been good but the market is very hard.

"We are trying to get into the start of the season with the squad we want."

Arsenal, however, don't appear to have the same sort of difficulties with four players through the door including over £70m on Pepe.

No excuses?

I think that's precisely what Ole's words are.

It's the same old, same old.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

Decent post but seriously, what is it with this trend of adding images to posts as if it were some Daily Mail article?

 

[ArjenIsM3]

You are great at pulling words out of their original context and putting them back to fit your narrative. Really, you should pursue a career as a journalist.

 

[devilish]

If we start the season with just AWB and the runner from the championship then we deserve all the abuse we will get.

 

[roonster09]

You are great at pulling words out of their original context and putting them back to fit your narrative. Really, you should pursue a career as a journalist.

Exactly. Ole was asked about window closing early and what's his take on that as few managers are for that rule and few are against that.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

Did anybody truly expect better?

The AWB transfer ‘dragged’ on for all intents & purposes; plus we push a narrative that we deal with one transfer at a time then move on to the next target.

The Maguire deal will drag on until the final day or so & we’ll end up with Dybala by-proxy but the club has no intention of replacing Herrera, let alone Fellaini so I can’t see the Fernandes transfer happening.

I honestly wonder what Ed & co. do in between Transfer Windows as we never seem prepared for the task of overhauling this squad. Why are Darmian, Rojo etc. still here.

 

[The Boy]

Did anybody truly expect better?

How happy would you be with this window if the club adds Dybala and Maguire in the next 6 days and possibly longstaff

 

[ivaldo]

Did anybody truly expect better?

The AWB transfer ‘dragged’ on for all intents & purposes; plus we push a narrative that we deal with one transfer at a time then move on to the next target.

The Maguire deal will drag on until the final day or so & we’ll end up with Dybala by-proxy but the club has no intention of replacing Herrera, let alone Fellaini so I can’t see the Fernandes transfer happening.

I honestly wonder what Ed & co. do in between Transfer Windows as we never seem prepared for the task of overhauling this squad. Why are Darmian, Rojo etc. still here.

We can’t force clubs to sign our players. It’s incredible how some fans seemingly think transfers are done on the back of fag packets. The Maguire deal is dragging on because Leicester want £85mil, making him the, what, 8th most expensive player in history? The AWB deal didn’t drag on. A helluva lot of fans wanted us to pay £60mil up front for him. Do we even need to replace Fellaini?

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

How happy would you be with this window if the club adds Dybala and Maguire in the next 6 days and possibly longstaff

We’ve lost Herrera & Fellaini in the past 2 windows & I felt we needed an improved midfielder before either of those left, so whilst Longstaff is highly regarded we’re still relying on a player like Matic too much.

Dybala is a no-braner imo. If we can convince him to come & be realistic with his expectations then it’ll be fun to see how it works out. Aguero / Silva didn’t grow up Citeh fans & they seem ok in the city. He shouldn’t be given the saviour complex we gave di Maria / Depay etc.

Maguire. . . He’s better than what we have but for £80-90mil I just think he has to be a World Class upgrade & that I’m unsure of - he’ll be good but for that fee he can’t just be better he has to carry the defence ala VvD-esque levels.

The Maguire signing just strikes me as lazy, if we’re not spending infinitely [which is understandable] then I’d rather we break it down & sign players like Tierney to rival Shaw & lead to the end of Young / Darmian etc.

We all hate them here but Liverpool went; Firmino > Mane > Salah > VvD > Allison.

Citeh under Pep were already in place up front before he built the back line.

Our attack / midfield is so disjointed that one mistake from the back line & we’ll struggle to get back in the game again this season.

So in short, I’d be happier than I am now but given we’ve only sign a good right back & a talented winger over the past 2 months that’s not much surprise.

 

[BlackBen]

AWB is a right back.

 

[Kush]

We have indeed left it too late but let's revisit this thread on Thursday, many things are in motion so let's wait for 6 more days.

Although, I agree with your overall point. PL clubs have been handicapped due to stupid deadline, but this is something which club knew all along so they can't make that excuse.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

We can’t force clubs to sign our players. It’s incredible how some fans seemingly think transfers are done on the back of fag packets. The Maguire deal is dragging on because Leicester want £85mil, making him the, what, 8th most expensive player in history? The AWB deal didn’t drag on. A helluva lot of fans wanted us to pay £60mil up front for him. Do we even need to replace Fellaini?

We’ve been attempting to sell these players for multiple windows. We bought too high & gave them a salary accordingly. It’s like buying a £200k house & spending £200k on renovation then being shocked no one will give you £400k when the market says the top valuation your house can get you is £300k. Teams are interested in our ‘trash’ we’re just not being realistic in accepting we overvalued the asset coming in & have actually further devalued them during their time here. For from a fag packet but. . .

The world knew we wanted AWB for months prior to the end of the season, yet we began negotiations once the season had closed; signing him days before we flew out on pre season. It isn’t illegal to negotiate a transfer outside of the window, the player joining the club is. The deal could have been done more efficiently, like when Fergie was in charge & the Nani / Anderson transfers were confirmed days after the season ended without fuss.

The Maguire deal isn’t a negotiation though, Leicester [similarly to CP with AWB] have given a value. If we are going to pay it then ‘negotiating’ our way up to an immovable figure isn’t negotiating, it’s stalling. Maguire [if he is the player we want] should be a done deal as missing pre-season / bedding in with his teammates should be considered essential.

Fellaini. Hate him or love him was a Belgian international that wasn’t replaced when the midfield was already questionable. Did we need him? no. Do we need midfielders? yes.

 

[ivaldo]

We’ve been attempting to sell these players for multiple windows. We bought too high & gave them a salary accordingly. It’s like buying a £200k house & spending £200k on renovation then being shocked no one will give you £400k when the market says the top valuation your house can get you is £300k. Teams are interested in our ‘trash’ we’re just not being realistic in accepting we overvalued the asset coming in & have actually further devalued them during their time here. For from a fag packet but. . .

The world knew we wanted AWB for months prior to the end of the season, yet we began negotiations once the season had closed; signing him days before we flew out on pre season. It isn’t illegal to negotiate a transfer outside of the window, the player joining the club is. The deal could have been done more efficiently, like when Fergie was in charge & the Nani / Anderson transfers were confirmed days after the season ended without fuss.

The Maguire deal isn’t a negotiation though, Leicester [similarly to CP with AWB] have given a value. If we are going to pay it then ‘negotiating’ our way up to an immovable figure isn’t negotiating, it’s stalling. Maguire [if he is the player we want] should be a done deal as missing pre-season / bedding in with his teammates should be considered essential.

Fellaini. Hate him or love him was a Belgian international that wasn’t replaced when the midfield was already questionable. Did we need him? no. Do we need midfielders? yes.

We don’t have an option to pay these players pennies when they sign for us. The world knows we have the ability to offer substantial wages, and therefore we invariably need to do so to secure deals. Predictably you’ve not factored in the other parties in this. We could offer our ‘trash’ for free but they still need to agree wages with the buying club. No one wants to pay Rojo £80k a week, so there isn’t the incentive for those players to move on. It gets to the point where is it really worth getting peanuts for these players and having to subsidise their wages in order to get them off our books?

You knew we hadn’t made contact how exactly? But if you want to make that a criticism then you make it for every player brought in beyond the first few days of the window. Was Pepe signed immediately or was he signed after AWB? So why are you using him as an example of how business should be done?

Indeed Palace gave a non negotiable valuation of £60mil upfront, a fee many here wanted us to ‘just pay.’ We didn’t pay that though, did we? We paid 45+5. We negotiated an apparently unnegotiable fee.

 

[Ranchero]

We’ve lost Herrera & Fellaini in the past 2 windows & I felt we needed an improved midfielder before either of those left, so whilst Longstaff is highly regarded we’re still relying on a player like Matic too much.

Dybala is a no-braner imo. If we can convince him to come & be realistic with his expectations then it’ll be fun to see how it works out. Aguero / Silva didn’t grow up Citeh fans & they seem ok in the city. He shouldn’t be given the saviour complex we gave di Maria / Depay etc.

Maguire. . . He’s better than what we have but for £80-90mil I just think he has to be a World Class upgrade & that I’m unsure of - he’ll be good but for that fee he can’t just be better he has to carry the defence ala VvD-esque levels.

The Maguire signing just strikes me as lazy, if we’re not spending infinitely [which is understandable] then I’d rather we break it down & sign players like Tierney to rival Shaw & lead to the end of Young / Darmian etc.

We all hate them here but Liverpool went; Firmino > Mane > Salah > VvD > Allison.

Citeh under Pep were already in place up front before he built the back line.

Our attack / midfield is so disjointed that one mistake from the back line & we’ll struggle to get back in the game again this season.

So in short, I’d be happier than I am now but given we’ve only sign a good right back & a talented winger over the past 2 months that’s not much surprise.

Our midfield remains the big headache. But Dybala is not a midfielder.

 

[SaintMuppet]

It’s been a pretty sad transfer season for us. We have had time and opportunity to repair some of the holes but it looks like the club has no real interest.

Dybala/Maguire etc are not coming nor were they ever. Pure smoke and mirrors so they can say ‘we tried’ or whatever excuse is pulled from their arses.

I genuinely feel the ownership no longer care about the football side unless it affects business.

They need to go or we will be mid table regulars before we know it.

 

[Kag]

You are great at pulling words out of their original context and putting them back to fit your narrative. Really, you should pursue a career as a journalist.

Indeed. The entire thread is a steaming load of shite.

Football discussion has gone to the dogs on here.

 

[romufc]

Once the window closes and Ed Woodward starts to make excuses about transfer fees etc, I suspect most fans will buy it.

But the fans that have followed the window, won't buy it. We have been linked with Longstaff from May, but havent pursued it. Maguire since May and everyone knew what Leicester wanted.

The club knew a CB was needed, so they should have got their scouts to work from Jan/Feb to find players, I am sure we could have found other alternatives that would have been willing to negotiate.

CM - We have only been flirting with SMS, Longstaff when players like Partey have release clauses.

RW - Nothing

CAM - Bruno has been dragging even thought we may not be interested in him, I feel if we wanted him, we could have got him.

I suspect a hostile OT this season directed at Woodward and Glazers.

 

[Ranchero]

Indeed. The entire thread is a steaming load of shite.

Football discussion has gone to the dogs on here.

Not helped by this kind of 'yes he is, no he isn't" comment which articulates nothing.

 

[Ranchero]

Exactly. Ole was asked about window closing early and what's his take on that as few managers are for that rule and few are against that.

He then commented on the current state of play.

 

[Ranchero]

You are great at pulling words out of their original context and putting them back to fit your narrative. Really, you should pursue a career as a journalist.

Feel free to explain how.

 

[roonster09]

He then commented on the current state of play.

What state of play?

 

[roonster09]

Anyone falling for out of context quotes which doesn't make sense without knowing what was asked, here is the video of that interview. (click on the link if video is not loading)

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[oz insomniac]

No need to despair people, Johan and Keefy will soon come in and tell us how good Ed and others are.
So the master negotiators are working hard to achieve little, another frustrating wipindow where the fans and manager are told to expect things , promised the world and don't even get an atlas.

We all want to proved wrong, and not expect excuses and actually sign targetted players, then apologies will be forthcoming.

No expectation of that happening to be honest, looks likely we will be overtaken by some clubs who finished below us last season and look,better prepared , oh well situation normal.

 

[JPRouve]

Exactly. Ole was asked about window closing early and what's his take on that as few managers are for that rule and few are against that.

And if I'm not mistaken United is one of the clubs against it.

 

[11101]

I think we will panic on the last day and pay Leicesters asking price for Maguire, and that will be all we do.

The Jones contract summed it all up. We are crippled by indecision. Any other club would have welcomed the opportunity to get rid of him, but you know the thinking here was that letting him leave might mean we miss out on some phantom future transfer fee or he might still become the next Duncan Edwards. We have nobody at the club who can make informed decisions and get things done.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Personally I think we have an interest in Bruno if pogba goes but anyone reliable says we haven't bid.

Dybala and maguire could clearly happen. Dybala in train and maguire 90m seems like too much for United so will have to come down

 

[roonster09]

And if I'm not mistaken United is one of the clubs against it.

Yeah, rumors are ManUtd, City were against the idea.

Also it doesn't make sense to take these quotes out of context without knowing what was the question.

For example, Interviewer asked specifically about long term planning and young players, so Ole answered how we have to long term instead of thinking next 1-2 years, somehow that means he is talking about slow improvement. It's hilarious.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

Woodward at his finest. I'd like to see those who still think it was just our previous managers who were eijits

 

[Eric's Seagull]

Did anybody truly expect better?

The AWB transfer ‘dragged’ on for all intents & purposes; plus we push a narrative that we deal with one transfer at a time then move on to the next target.

The Maguire deal will drag on until the final day or so & we’ll end up with Dybala by-proxy but the club has no intention of replacing Herrera, let alone Fellaini so I can’t see the Fernandes transfer happening.

I honestly wonder what Ed & co. do in between Transfer Windows as we never seem prepared for the task of overhauling this squad. Why are Darmian, Rojo etc. still here.

I expected much better. I thought Woody was actually going to something good this window. Was expecting 5 signing in before preseason to get them used to Ole's methods and more time to gel with the squad. I was wrong and I don't think we will have anymore signing hope Woody proves me wrong. I think the one transfer at a time bollux is excuse for Woody when he can say that "it took too much time so we weren't able to secure necessary targets".

Your point in bold is a very valid one and I've been thinking the same myself. I thought we would definitely be getting rid of some of the deadwood.

Apt title fecking Groundhog Day. I mentioned it felt like that in a post the other day and it fecking hurts to use the term. This transfer window has p!ssed me off so far although that could well change but I doubt it. Feels to me like Ole has been severely let down by Woody.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

If we start the season with just AWB and the runner from the championship then we deserve all the abuse we will get.

If we do, I better not see applause at Old Trafford if results don't go our way.

Woodward has made an absolutely mockery of this club. This season should be the final straw for him.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Woodward at his finest. I'd like to see those who still think it was just our previous managers who were ejits

That's just the point.

It's Woodward + incompetent managers being here.

Literally can't get worse than that.

Oh wait it can. We have awful owners too.

SAF truly papered over all of the cracks ready to creep through.

 

[GBBQ]

There's too much uncertainty in this window. We started off the window with our 2 most expensive signings intimating that they want to leave though both having sufficient time on their contract that they could not really agitate for a move and would rely on (at the time) Inter and Madrid making huge offers which so far haven't materialised. I think that meant we would never get the deals done by 1st of July.

We might feel confident we will keep Pogba now but if Madrid make a bid and he decides to go on strike we'd most likely have to cave to avoid a toxic dressing room. So I genuinely believe we have been doing a lot of contingency work in the background and have been afraid to go overboard on,say, Longstaff when we might need to bring in a first team ready playmaker instead. Similarly we might have deals in principle for Ben yedder that would be activated if Lukaku goes to inter.

I am going to be optimistic and say we will pull the trigger on a number of signings in the last days of the window when it becomes clearer who stays and who goes. If James and AWB are the sum total of our dealings then yes we will burn the place down but otherwise lets leave the post mortems until the 9th of August.

 

[quethenoo]

I posted this in another thread, the short straw was in response to a direct question about the transfer window being shorter and if he felt it was a good thing or not. He said not for us, meaning British teams, which of course is the sane answer! Stop finding imaginary sticks to beat Ole and the club with, there are plenty of real ones I'm sure!!!!

 

[JPRouve]

I expected much better. I thought Woody was actually going to something good this window. Was expecting 5 signing in before preseason to get them used to Ole's methods and more time to gel with the squad. I was wrong and I don't think we will have anymore signing hope Woody proves me wrong. I think the one transfer at a time bollux is excuse for Woody when he can say that "it took too much time so we weren't able to secure necessary targets".

Your point in bold is a very valid one and I've been thinking the same myself. I thought we would definitely be getting rid of some of the deadwood.

Apt title fecking Groundhog Day. I mentioned it felt like that in a post the other day and it fecking hurts to use the term. This transfer window has p!ssed me off so far although that could well change but I doubt it. Feels to me like Ole has been severely let down by Woody.

Why would you think that things would be better? In April, they proudly communicated that they were going to meet and talk about transfers, in April. As long as we do not have a DOF every seasons where we change managers we will start our business late and even if we do have a manager he has to be highly competent.

 

[Ranchero]

I posted this in another thread, the short straw was in response to a direct question about the transfer window being shorter and if he felt it was a good thing or not. He said not for us, meaning British teams, which of course is the sane answer! Stop finding imaginary sticks to beat Ole and the club with, there are plenty of real ones I'm sure!!!!

Talk about taking things out of context? How about concentrating on one thing but not what he said about being a tough transfer window ...the same old same old fed mantra that i am fed up with.

Words are not enough..the club has to act but again it is all last minute if anything is done at all.

 

[Mr Pigeon]

Decent post but seriously, what is it with this trend of adding images to posts as if it were some Daily Mail article?

It's Ranchero's thing.

He likes to write as if he's a journalist.

Which is just funny because it's well known that none of us on this forum can read good.

 

[Ranchero]

There's too much uncertainty in this window. We started off the window with our 2 most expensive signings intimating that they want to leave though both having sufficient time on their contract that they could not really agitate for a move and would rely on (at the time) Inter and Madrid making huge offers which so far haven't materialised. I think that meant we would never get the deals done by 1st of July.

We might feel confident we will keep Pogba now but if Madrid make a bid and he decides to go on strike we'd most likely have to cave to avoid a toxic dressing room. So I genuinely believe we have been doing a lot of contingency work in the background and have been afraid to go overboard on,say, Longstaff when we might need to bring in a first team ready playmaker instead. Similarly we might have deals in principle for Ben yedder that would be activated if Lukaku goes to inter.

I am going to be optimistic and say we will pull the trigger on a number of signings in the last days of the window when it becomes clearer who stays and who goes. If James and AWB are the sum total of our dealings then yes we will burn the place down but otherwise lets leave the post mortems until the 9th of August.

Saying nothing until it is too late is not an option in this day and age. That is precisely why fan forums are there.

 

[Steven Seagull]

It might be excuses but I would rather Ole run transfers on the long term approach than spunk a load of money as fast as he can this summer.

If we start the season with just AWB and the runner from the championship then we deserve all the abuse we will get.

Just call him by his name mate. It’s never going to be funny

 

[Nialinho]

You've definitely twisted words to fit your narrative.. Ole has always talked about having a long term vision and it's clear as day (no matter who was in charge), the squad needs major surgery and it will take years to be title challengers again. The quote about the window shutting is out of context considering he was asked about it shutting early. People really need to stop constantly sh*tting on our managers for our transfer troubles. It's Woodward/Judge's responsibility to make the deals for players Ole approves/targets. To be honest if we get Dybala and Maguire (big if), I'd say it's been a good window. Probably posted this 10x times now, but we can't fix everything in one window and let's wait until the window is shut before having a break down over the lack of signings.

 

[Eric's Seagull]

Why would you think that things would be better? In April, they proudly communicated that they were going to meet and talk about transfers, in April. As long as we do not have a DOF every seasons where we change managers we will start our business late and even if we do have a manager he has to be highly competent.

I thought we were going to do better when I read that we were going to get 5 signings as it that it would be good way to start off the rebuild.