Have we signed anyone yet? | Yes, with stupid tax

[Lights Out]

There were posters actively being scornful of others for being concerned about the activity of the club at a time when all our rivals were scrambling for signatures and bedding them in. Indeed, Spurs have signed, what? *6* players this summer, an amount some posters on here poured scorn upon saying it's not feasible to sign so many players in a window. Spurs are also apparently seeking more players this same window - Conte is being backed to the hilt, unfathomably.

The frustrating bit isn't even the scorn and short-sightedness, it's that unless quoted, you won't hear a peep out of said posters now whilst the window looks like it's crumbling around us. There was always very real cause for concern and nothing to side with the club over given the track record of the last however many years you want to go back.

We're now left scrambling, practically as usual, having the tail chase the dog because we've fecked up a transfer window we should have been more prepared for than any other club in the country. Removing the chaos of the de Jong saga, we've still pulled up so mightily short that even the most sage heads are asking wtf is this club doing? It's a window that adjectives can't do justice to, so bad is it. Really grating when this comes after our worst PL of literally ever. Flabbergastingly bad.

So true.

Where are the cringey “Wah wah wah I want new shiny toys” posts these days.

 

[James35]

There were posters actively being scornful of others for being concerned about the activity of the club at a time when all our rivals were scrambling for signatures and bedding them in. Indeed, Spurs have signed, what? *6* players this summer, an amount some posters on here poured scorn upon saying it's not feasible to sign so many players in a window. Spurs are also apparently seeking more players this same window - Conte is being backed to the hilt, unfathomably.

The frustrating bit isn't even the scorn and short-sightedness, it's that unless quoted, you won't hear a peep out of said posters now whilst the window looks like it's crumbling around us. There was always very real cause for concern and nothing to side with the club over given the track record of the last however many years you want to go back.

We're now left scrambling, practically as usual, having the tail chase the dog because we've fecked up a transfer window we should have been more prepared for than any other club in the country. Removing the chaos of the de Jong saga, we've still pulled up so mightily short that even the most sage heads are asking wtf is this club doing? It's a window that adjectives can't do justice to, so bad is it. Really grating when this comes after our worst PL of literally ever. Flabbergastingly bad.

This 100%.

 

[Chairman Steve]

I personally think it’s been a slight overreaction from the fanbase. If this was the last week of the window, then yeah it would look like we’ve shit our britches... but there’s like over 3 weeks to go.

Feck knows whats actually happening with FDJ. We’re dealing with something that is weird and extremely rare, with a team that LOVES playing politics publicly and are very sneaky and underhanded in their ways. Remember the Arsenal players they were tapping up a decade ago like Fabregas? And them using their mouthpiece Sport to do it for them. If we don’t get him, fine, then move onto the alternatives. It seems like SMS, Guido Rodriguez and maybe Rabiot are involved. No-one knows whether we’ve only considered them in the event FDJ doesn’t come, or whether they were always considered and there’s some ‘playing your hand close to your chest’ going on. None of those guys are freebies so their clubs will demand fees from us and put some on top because of who we are. We seem to be working within a budget, we don’t want to overplay our hand and price ourselves out. I’d agree that we look stupid if we’re only now going after a free agent. Even Arnautovic needed a fee that we don’t know whether our offer was too little anyway and that was as far as we would go, regardless of us supposedly pulling out for his personal history.

You can theorise that the weekend involved ETH showing the board ‘You want me to work with this?’, and that Fred and McTominay is absolutely not going to cut it, along with some other players on show. A good few of them really didn’t look up to the task against a good mid-table team. I dare say it may be a blessing in disguise that we played them and not some cannon fodder team that we probably would have beaten and gone on our merry ways.

Lets not forget SAF is living proof getting your first choice doesn’t mean the season goes down the pan. Can’t get Shearer? Get Solskjaer. Can’t get Kluviert? Get Yorke. Can’t get Ronaldinho? Get Ronaldo.

 

[croadyman]

I personally think it’s been a slight overreaction from the fanbase. If this was the last week of the window, then yeah it would look like we’ve shit our britches... but there’s like over 3 weeks to go.

Feck knows whats actually happening with FDJ. We’re dealing with something that is weird and extremely rare, with a team that LOVES playing politics publicly and are very sneaky and underhanded in their ways. Remember the Arsenal players they were tapping up a decade ago like Fabregas? And them using their mouthpiece Sport to do it for them. If we don’t get him, fine, then move onto the alternatives. It seems like SMS, Guido Rodriguez and maybe Rabiot are involved. No-one knows whether we’ve only considered them in the event FDJ doesn’t come, or whether they were always considered and there’s some ‘playing your hand close to your chest’ going on. None of those guys are freebies so their clubs will demand fees from us and put some on top because of who we are. We seem to be working within a budget, we don’t want to overplay our hand and price ourselves out. I’d agree that we look stupid if we’re only now going after a free agent. Even Arnautovic needed a fee that we don’t know whether our offer was too little anyway and that was as far as we would go, regardless of us supposedly pulling out for his personal history.

You can theorise that the weekend involved ETH showing the board ‘You want me to work with this?’, and that Fred and McTominay is absolutely not going to cut it, along with some other players on show. A good few of them really didn’t look up to the task against a good mid-table team. I dare say it may be a blessing in disguise that we played them and not some cannon fodder team that we probably would have beaten and gone on our merry ways.

Lets not forget SAF is living proof getting your first choice doesn’t mean the season goes down the pan. Can’t get Shearer? Get Solskjaer. Can’t get Kluviert? Get Yorke. Can’t get Ronaldinho? Get Ronaldo.

Reckon we would have won a couple more Champions Leagues in Shearer's prime years

 

[mitchmouse]

and still the wait for an apology from those who seem to have finally put away their red-tinted glasses who told me I was the cause of the problem (or something as "sensible"), that I was putting pressure on the club and that I hated the club, goes on...

 

[Telsim]

Competition in this window is high. Madrid have a ton on money to spend. Chelsea's new owners are coming in swinging. Tottenham are also looking to spend a lot. Newcastle, too. Liverpool and City will probably be looking to make another signing or two.

We need to start acting very soon or we will have to settle for second-raters and hand-me-downs once again.

Posted on the 28th of May. So easy to predict these things with this club. Gakpo, Arnautovic, Rabiot are the type of players we are going for now. How is it even possible to not have any sort of plan or forward thinking at all?

 

[frostbite]

We have spent 60m on yet another central defender, 18m on yet another left back, and we are holding 80m for Frenkie. That's 160m.

1. What was our budget this summer? More than 160m?

2. Why did we spend half the budget on two positions where we already had a lot of players and not on midfield where we clearly need options?

 

[Sammy McIlroys fan club]

We have spent 60m on yet another central defender, 18m on yet another left back, and we are holding 80m for Frenkie. That's 160m.

1. What was our budget this summer? More than 160m?

2. Why did we spend half the budget on two positions where we already had a lot of players and not on midfield where we clearly need options?

Because virtually all of our centre halfs are either injured or useless
Of our two left backs Telles is not good enough and Shaw is crocked a lot of the time.
When he arrived ETH allegedly identified Telles, AWB, Jones and Bailly as having no future at the club. If we are actively trying to replace these players we need alternatives. Looks like after Sunday Fred and McTominay have been added to the list.

 

[mitchmouse]

Posted on the 28th of May. So easy to predict these things with this club. Gakpo, Arnautovic, Rabiot are the type of players we are going for now. How is it even possible to not have any sort of plan or forward thinking at all?

Simple: appoint drongos to positions of importance. And when that doesn't work, appoint replicas of them

 

[bosnian_red]

One day I will wake up to new signings. Our inactivity this summer has been incredible

 

[Glorio]

Melissa Reddy sticking the boot in hard

'Scrambling around the cheap, easy aisle' - Man Utd's transfer strategy assessed

If you think that's brutal, check out the content ...

https://www.skysports.com/football/...egy-in-question-amid-troubled-transfer-window

I'm beyond convinced she's on the Caf as she's on the money with a lot of what's been observed and said on here.

 

[Frank Grimes]

One day I will wake up to new signings. Our inactivity this summer has been incredible

You used to be positive and full of hope. They've even broken you.

They won't bring in anyone until we have 4 points from 15 and top 4 is all but gone. Don't believe those idiots who say we never had a chance for top 4 anyway, with the right support it was a genuine possibility. Now it's very unlikely, due to the boards incompetence.

 

[Ikon]

Melissa Reddy sticking the boot in hard

Personally, I can't dispute anything in that article.

 

[Scottynaldinho]

Signings are not really that important for me as long as the manager have us playing great football. We have plenty of options with this squad and academy players to go with.

Let's start playing "football" and see where we stand at the end of the season.

It's really stupid to complain about the signings or lack of it when it's been clear that results haven't improved even when we've signed great players.

 

[Robbie Boy]

We missed a trick by not signing Alexis Sanchez on a free.

 

[bosnian_red]

You used to be positive and full of hope. They've even broken you.

They won't bring in anyone until we have 4 points from 15 and top 4 is all but gone. Don't believe those idiots who say we never had a chance for top 4 anyway, with the right support it was a genuine possibility. Now it's very unlikely, due to the boards incompetence.

I still have hope long term with ten hag. But this season will be nothing without more reinforcements. Best hope would be a Europa League run. Signings to me are important to send a message to the squad and show intent. The current message is "we don't give a feck how we do" essentially, and it's hard to truly change the atmosphere without signings.

Without anything significant happening, best we can hope for is a good run in the Europa League and 6th place. Next season we can kick on more, but we need to make smarter signings. I don't even care about Frenkie anymore. Just address obvious holes and give Ten Hag something to work with.

 

[GDaly95]

I'm sad

 

[Frank Grimes]

I still have hope long term with ten hag. But this season will be nothing without more reinforcements. Best hope would be a Europa League run. Signings to me are important to send a message to the squad and show intent. The current message is "we don't give a feck how we do" essentially, and it's hard to truly change the atmosphere without signings.

Without anything significant happening, best we can hope for is a good run in the Europa League and 6th place. Next season we can kick on more, but we need to make smarter signings. I don't even care about Frenkie anymore. Just address obvious holes and give Ten Hag something to work with.

Didn't have to be this way. My main interest now is how Ten Hag can get what players he has playing. Hopefully improvements in playing style become apparent as the season progresses.

 

[bosnian_red]

Didn't have to be this way. My main interest now is how Ten Hag can get what players he has playing. Hopefully improvements in playing style become apparent as the season progresses.

Oh it will for sure. And I feel like we do have a set of midfielders that we can find a functional system out of. It'll take time for him to find the right combinations though. Players might play one way in friendlies or training, but he'll find they don't have the composure to play the same way in the big stage. It takes time to go through that, along with just understanding and coaching the system properly for it to become second nature to the players. Took Klopp time, took Pep time.

It's not the same as implementing a system like Tuchel's or Conte's, which might have a much quicker turn around time, but does not have the same potential as this sort of dominating system. More errors come out while the team is adapting, the coach himself will have to adapt, and certain players will get highlighted as just plain not good enough and holding the team back from progressing. Signings like Frenkie de Jong could have really accelerated the process, but that's obviously not happening. So better to just be patient, take it 1 game at a time, look for how the team progresses with the system over the season, see what personnel changes happen (will Garner, Donny and Eriksen turn into the midfield starter ahead of Mctominay, fred and Bruno, or will it be a mixture of them that becomes the midfield that functions for us?), and just take the highs that come with the lows. I don't think the club are putting that much priority into finishing top 4 this year with the stage of the rebuild that we are in, clearly not by the signings, so it is what it is. Hope for a good Europa League run to sneak into CL.

 

[Glorio]

Personally, I can't dispute anything in that article.

Neither can I mate

 

[V.O.]

We missed a trick by not signing Alexis Sanchez on a free.

Same age as Arnautovic but was actually good at football once.

 

[AbusementPark]

Chelsea look to be stealing in for FDJ, not sure if stealing is the correct term as we have doddled all summer chasing this guy. For the sake of €17m in lost wages just pay it ourselves and get the guy and we would have had him weeks ago, possibly. Honestly I can’t believe how incompetently this club is being run.

 

[frostbite]

Because virtually all of our centre halfs are either injured or useless
Of our two left backs Telles is not good enough and Shaw is crocked a lot of the time.
When he arrived ETH allegedly identified Telles, AWB, Jones and Bailly as having no future at the club. If we are actively trying to replace these players we need alternatives. Looks like after Sunday Fred and McTominay have been added to the list.

Since our budget is not infinite, it is a matter of priorities. The priority was the midfield, where we basically have no other options than McFred and some kids. We wasted half of our budget on CB and LB, and now we are stuck with Frenkie. If we don't get Frenkie there will be no time to get a proper midfielder, but even if we get Frenkie, we probably need another defensive player in midfield. Either way our midfield will remain a problem.

Instead, we should have bought one top defensive midfielder with the 80m we have already spent. And if we also got Frenkie, then fine we'd have a proper midfield, if not, then at least we'd have one top player in midfield.

 

[HairyBack23]

There were posters actively being scornful of others for being concerned about the activity of the club at a time when all our rivals were scrambling for signatures and bedding them in. Indeed, Spurs have signed, what? *6* players this summer, an amount some posters on here poured scorn upon saying it's not feasible to sign so many players in a window. Spurs are also apparently seeking more players this same window - Conte is being backed to the hilt, unfathomably.

The frustrating bit isn't even the scorn and short-sightedness, it's that unless quoted, you won't hear a peep out of said posters now whilst the window looks like it's crumbling around us. There was always very real cause for concern and nothing to side with the club over given the track record of the last however many years you want to go back.

We're now left scrambling, practically as usual, having the tail chase the dog because we've fecked up a transfer window we should have been more prepared for than any other club in the country. Removing the chaos of the de Jong saga, we've still pulled up so mightily short that even the most sage heads are asking wtf is this club doing? It's a window that adjectives can't do justice to, so bad is it. Really grating when this comes after our worst PL of literally ever. Flabbergastingly bad.

This 100%. It really shows who actually has a clue what they're talking about. Toxic my arse.

 

[Drifter]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[frostbite]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[Alemar]

Melissa Reddy sticking the boot in hard

'Scrambling around the cheap, easy aisle' - Man Utd's transfer strategy assessed

If you think that's brutal, check out the content ...

https://www.skysports.com/football/...egy-in-question-amid-troubled-transfer-window

I'm beyond convinced she's on the Caf as she's on the money with a lot of what's been observed and said on here.

Her article is more or less a summary of all main caf discussions lately

 

[croadyman]

Chelsea look to be stealing in for FDJ, not sure if stealing is the correct term as we have doddled all summer chasing this guy. For the sake of €17m in lost wages just pay it ourselves and get the guy and we would have had him weeks ago, possibly. Honestly I can’t believe how incompetently this club is being run.

Incompetence FC 2013 - present

 

[bosnian_red]

Malacia looks good so far.

Martinez is getting bullied.

There is no plan for Eriksen and we are a team who is forcing in too many #10's again.

 

[Walrus]

We have a few weeks to turn things around, but unfortunately everyone in world football now knows how desperate we are, and a lot of the presumably first/second choices will have already made their moves. The rest of the 'big six' (which feels more like a big five now) were already stronger than us, but all of them have done much better business than us this summer and strengthened considerably;

City - Bought Haaland and Phillips, also Alvarez in January
Liverpool - Nunez, Carvalho, Diaz in January
Arsenal - Zinchenko, Vieira and Jesus, Saliba returning
Chelsea - Sterling, Koulibaly, Cucurella, Chukwuemeka, and still spending it seems
Spurs - Kulu and Bentancur in January, followed by another 6 or so players this summer

Meanwhile we have lost a bunch of players (thankfully), and not even replaced them yet, let alone thought about really strengthening. Our transfer window pales in comparison to the above, and to plenty of others in the league beyond that. Its simply not good enough and we are reaping what we have sown.

 

[Red Star One]

It’s awful but we gotta admit our pull is almost of a mid table club at this point so really we gotta aim for young ambitious players and punts rather than top prospects

 

[MrSingh2002]

Players United deemed to expensive this summer.

Antony
Sesko
Nkunku
Hakimi

Enquiries only for tyre kickers United.

Bottom of the league after 2 games.

Wonder if the club still think they were too expensive.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

We bought a left back and centre back last summer, we bought a left back and centre back this summer. Just shows you what a mess we are. fecked up.

 

[yumtum]

It’s awful but we gotta admit our pull is almost of a mid table club at this point so really we gotta aim for young ambitious players and punts rather than top prospects

Unfortunately we also have a reputation as a graveyard for young talent too as we never play them.

Mejbri - got him from Monaco as a 16yo for €5-10m, not getting a sniff.
Fernandez - send him on loan after buying another young left back.
Amad - one of the most expensive teenagers in Premier Leafue history, no a sniff.
Sancho - £73m and has been poorly coached for thebkast year.
Henderson - academy lad, messed around and is seemingly desperate to never come back
Martial - signed as a prodigy as a teen, coached poorly throughout his development years, constantly signing old strikers, taking his shirt number away from him etc.
Rashford - academy lad, poorly coached again through his development years.
Bailly - young CB prospect, again, poorly coached.
Lindelof - same as Bailly.
Shaw - same as above, and one of the most expensive teenagers in the Premier.

It's not all United fault, but it doesn't look good for prospects who want to progress, so we're left with mercenaries like Rabiot.

 

[Ricardo de la Vega]

Unfortunately we also have a reputation as a graveyard for young talent too as we never play them.

Mejbri - got him from Monaco as a 16yo for €5-10m, not getting a sniff.
Fernandez - send him on loan after buying another young left back.
Amad - one of the most expensive teenagers in Premier Leafue history, no a sniff.
Sancho - £73m and has been poorly coached for thebkast year.
Henderson - academy lad, messed around and is seemingly desperate to never come back
Martial - signed as a prodigy as a teen, coached poorly throughout his development years, constantly signing old strikers, taking his shirt number away from him etc.
Rashford - academy lad, poorly coached again through his development years.
Bailly - young CB prospect, again, poorly coached.
Lindelof - same as Bailly.
Shaw - same as above, and one of the most expensive teenagers in the Premier.

It's not all United fault, but it doesn't look good for prospects who want to progress, so we're left with mercenaries like Rabiot.

This is depressing...

 

[yumtum]

This is depressing...

Unfortunately it's difficult to see where the joy is going to come from, I love United, but they sure enjoy making it's fan base depressed.

Football is, and should be an escape from our hectic lives, specially in current times, but they just keep adding to the mountain of shite.

 

[Superden]

lots of caftards poo pooed me saying there was a chance ETH wouldnt be here after our tough run of games in Oct. Now theres a chance he might not be here before Oct. He doesnt seem like the kind of guy to take any crap, and if (yes its a big IF, weve still got loads of the window left etc etc) he's been sold a dud when it comes to our transfer plans, then i wouldnt be suprised if he walks. And if that leads to pressure on the glazers to finally sell up, then it will be all for good in the end.
Yes this is a desperately pessimistic take on things, but imagine someone saying that wed finish 6th and in disarray after finishing 2nd last season and adding who we did.

Hmm..

 

[Telsim]

"10 NeW pLaYeRs iS uNrEaLisTiC"

Arsenal - 5 players, looking to sign more
Chelsea - 5 transfers, looking to sign more
Tottenham - 6 new transfers
Barcelona - 5 new transfers
Manchester United (after a shocking season and with a new manager and a woeful squad) - 3 transfers. Neither of which address any of the big problems in the squad. Some of which have persisted for years.

We could have signed 6 new players and promoted some more. Sure, maybe not 10, but with smart and efficient buying we could have easily gotten to 8 at least. But no, apparently it's unrealistic because Joe Bloggs on the Caf says so, despite other teams clearly able to do it. It has nothing to do with inability and everything to do with sheer and overwhelming incompetence on every level in the club.

 

[Matt851]

I personally think it’s been a slight overreaction from the fanbase. If this was the last week of the window, then yeah it would look like we’ve shit our britches... but there’s like over 3 weeks to go.

Feck knows whats actually happening with FDJ. We’re dealing with something that is weird and extremely rare, with a team that LOVES playing politics publicly and are very sneaky and underhanded in their ways. Remember the Arsenal players they were tapping up a decade ago like Fabregas? And them using their mouthpiece Sport to do it for them. If we don’t get him, fine, then move onto the alternatives. It seems like SMS, Guido Rodriguez and maybe Rabiot are involved. No-one knows whether we’ve only considered them in the event FDJ doesn’t come, or whether they were always considered and there’s some ‘playing your hand close to your chest’ going on. None of those guys are freebies so their clubs will demand fees from us and put some on top because of who we are. We seem to be working within a budget, we don’t want to overplay our hand and price ourselves out. I’d agree that we look stupid if we’re only now going after a free agent. Even Arnautovic needed a fee that we don’t know whether our offer was too little anyway and that was as far as we would go, regardless of us supposedly pulling out for his personal history.

You can theorise that the weekend involved ETH showing the board ‘You want me to work with this?’, and that Fred and McTominay is absolutely not going to cut it, along with some other players on show. A good few of them really didn’t look up to the task against a good mid-table team. I dare say it may be a blessing in disguise that we played them and not some cannon fodder team that we probably would have beaten and gone on our merry ways.

Lets not forget SAF is living proof getting your first choice doesn’t mean the season goes down the pan. Can’t get Shearer? Get Solskjaer. Can’t get Kluviert? Get Yorke. Can’t get Ronaldinho? Get Ronaldo.

In this instance nit getting our first choice appears to mean getting rabiotor the Austrian Peter crouch not quite the same as ole or Ronaldo is it

 

[Superunknown]

Unfortunately we also have a reputation as a graveyard for young talent too as we never play them.

Mejbri - got him from Monaco as a 16yo for €5-10m, not getting a sniff.
Fernandez - send him on loan after buying another young left back.
Amad - one of the most expensive teenagers in Premier Leafue history, no a sniff.
Sancho - £73m and has been poorly coached for thebkast year.
Henderson - academy lad, messed around and is seemingly desperate to never come back
Martial - signed as a prodigy as a teen, coached poorly throughout his development years, constantly signing old strikers, taking his shirt number away from him etc.
Rashford - academy lad, poorly coached again through his development years.
Bailly - young CB prospect, again, poorly coached.
Lindelof - same as Bailly.
Shaw - same as above, and one of the most expensive teenagers in the Premier.

It's not all United fault, but it doesn't look good for prospects who want to progress, so we're left with mercenaries like Rabiot.

That's such a depressing read. The club doesn't know what it's doing.