How much do we need to spend?

[Volumiza]

I'm not sure how much we need to spend but that isn't the proper question. It's how we need to spend it.

IMO - First and foremost we need:

A top drawer, authoritative CB. This is essential. I really don't believe that Lindellof or Bailly are as bad as they look. They just need someone older, stronger and wiser than they are to play alongside. They are both still quite young and can't be expected to learn everything by themselves or in training. Experience can be learned but is also great to pass along.

A top drawer RB. I'm sure Dalot has great potential but again, he needs to be an understudy for a few years.

A commanding DM. Matic does seem a bit drained this season, whether he can retain what he had is one question but in the meantime we need cover for that position and someone who can boss the field in front of our defence and create freedom for Pogba / Fred / Herrera / Fellaini to operate in their best positions.

A striker. A proper one. I actually think Lukaku could be a great forward but he doesn't seem able to smash it every week. With his size, pace and strength he should be able to boss or at least hold his own against most CB's in the league / wolrd but he doesn't. For all his size and strength he doesn't seem to be a fighter.

Other than that I genuinely think we are good. There could be an argument for a RW but I still hope Rashford can make the position his own.

So that's 4 players. All need to be TOP DRAWER which means they will be expensive.

I would also like to see some money spent on the stadium. We are supposedly the most lucrative team in the world. It follows that we should be class leaders on the field, off the field and the field itself. I don't think the Glazers are quite the devils some would have us believe but I would like to see more evidence of them using some of the money we read about to keep our club at the forefront of what matters most. FOOTBALL.

 

[Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber]

I know there is a big proportion of people who blame Jose for the current form, and some of it is down to him, no doubt about that. However I was looking at the squad last night vs Juventus thinking how poor some of our first 11 looked up against a top top team.

I'm going to be probably a little too rough and pessimistic but suggest some of our starting 11 should be on the bench as back up really. Lukaku, Rashford, Young all need improving up on and should be warming the bench.

We look like we need a number 9, 10, at least 1 CB, a RB, RW a CM who can control the game.

We're half a team away from being anywhere near the top teams from what I can tell, and Jose is right in some sense that the other top teams don't rest and go out buying players to improve them even when they are already strong. Considering our scouts are shite we'll have to pay top dollar for top players. So I'd say 300 million minimum is what we need to spend over the next few transfer windows.

We have a right back. We need a right winger, We need upgrades on Rojo and Jones (2 CBS), a midfielder goal scoring midfielder comfortable as a 10, a right winger and a back up target man/two wingers
Basically all the things stupid Woodward neglected in the summer

 

[WensleyMU]

1) Di Maria was sold the previous summer under van Gaal.
2) Most, if not all large companies have budgets for the cost of labor. Do you honestly think player sales have NO impact on a football clubs budget for signing players? lol


The bolded is a nothing comment and at best your opinion. Not sure what point you're trying to make with that.

There is this thing call net income and there are these things called balance sheets. I hope you aren't trying to tell me a billion pound company as large as Manchester United doesn't set budgets...

Regardless, look at the players they have sold. In most cases, these are quality players so it's obvious they needed to be replaced (that's why I posted the players lost and not just how much they made since people love to argue ad nauseam about net spend). The point is in many cases they were replacing a squad, not just adding to an existing team.

Clubs lose players in a number of ways, through sales, through retirement or through injury. Each time they have to be replaced.

In 2014 when United lost the experience of Rio, Vidic, Evra as well as the likes of Nani, we made almost nothing from it. So we were unable to reinvest and had to use our other revenue streams to do so. The net spend argument does not fact in this.

Last season, when we lost Rooney and later Ibra as well as Carrick again meant we lost vast amounts of experience for basically nothing. Ibra aside, the others we extracted much more than the initial outlay, we maximised out investment and these players gave us their absolute best year's. How do we calculate a value for that? Another reason net spend is flawed.

People shouldn't be praising net spend clubs either. Especially those in the Premier League where every club receives at least £100million irrespective of finishing position. The figures for our main rivals will be much higher when everything is taken into account.

 

[WensleyMU]

Are these figures accurate?

I was under the assumption that only City and PSG had outspent us over the last three years.

Have Chelsea really spent almost a hundred mil more than us in this period?

And Juventus have outspent City?

Taken from transfermarkt so I would presume so. Juventus are owned by the Agnelli family. The head of the family is worth over £10billion, the family itself is worth far more than that.

Juventus basically have the longest running sugar daddy owner in sport, since the 1920s.

 

[WensleyMU]

Wow, I can't believe someone actually write this. I would like to know the company you work for.

It's not selling to buy, it is called spend responsiblely, an attribute every successful business applys.

Dear lord.... Of course it's selling to buy, hence the term, net spend.

And United are the most successful football business, not any of these net spend clubs. The flawed net spend argument doesn't take into account revenue from other streams, hence its heavily biased against those that operate a more sustainable business model.

Irrespective of where the income comes from, it all goes on the balance sheet at the end of the year.

 

[RedFan84]

Taken from transfermarkt so I would presume so. Juventus are owned by the Agnelli family. The head of the family is worth over £10billion, the family itself is worth far more than that.

Juventus basically have the longest running sugar daddy owner in sport, since the 1920s.

They earn enough on their own to not have to go to the owners for Money. The Club is a business and is an essentially self-sufficient one at that. It's only the likes of PSG who need Sugar Daddies. Even Chelsea and Man City look set to generate their revenue and be self sustainable in the future.

 

[Woziak]

First things first, Jose must go before December 2018 then any new player recruitment must be decided by a new Top Elite Manager and a new Director of Football together.
We can no longer use a ridiculous scattergun approach or give Ed his list of 4 or 5 players for one position, sometimes making do with the 4th or 5th best choice which Lindelof and Matic clearly were. Players should want to join United at all costs not simply because of a big fat 5 year contract.

• We need a top 5 ranked Centre Back in World Football who is 25 to 28 - Probable cost £100M
• We need a world class no 10 type player to replace an aging Juan Mata - Probably cost - £100M again age 23 to 27
• We need an Elite Goal scorer who can lead the line age 24 to 30 - Probably cost £120M
• We need an international quality Right Back who has great delivery - age 26 to 29 - Probably cost £40-50M
• We need an Elite level left footed winger who can play right or left side - Age 19 to 26 - Probably cost £75M
• Finally we need a young 21 -24, premier league proven and international Left footed Defender that can play Left centre Back or left wing back - Probably cost £35M

It's obvious that these are the real problems within the squad, with the correct Manager, Eric Bailly, Fred, Matic(playing less football), Andreas Pereira, Ander Herrra, Feillani and Even Pogba can play as a deep lying midfield playmaker or defensive Midfielder. We currently have at least 7 players who can play this position with at most 2 spaces required. This is not a priority unless we could potentially go and buy Ngolo Kante from Chelsea which we can't.

The new transfer policy going forward should be that unless the players are significantly better than what we have, the club should not waste money on repeating the same mistakes as the last 5 years! Ok so on to the top ranked 5 centre back in World Football, my choices would be either Raphael Varane or Koulibaly. Both would be difficult to recruit but not impossible and why waste time on Harry Maguire or others, due to lack of pace he will never be in the worlds five best. The next problem position is the No 10, Juan is still a great player and would be great to have around the squad but we need an upgrade so again the club should look to recruit either Paulo Dybala or James Rodriguez. Both are clearly not happy in their current role where they want to be the main man at a big Club so let's go get one on 1st January 2019 in order to lift the spirits within the club. James could probably be done for £50M and Dyballa 80M plus Darmian. If things continue on such a downward spiral, the board will have to go big in January and any 2 of these 4 players even at £200M investment would give the club a huge lift and a chance to maybe fight for a top 4 place.

The rest of the Squad overhaul will probably have to wait until the summer and my 2 options for CFW would be Maurio Icardi or Edison Cavani (Yes he doesn't fit the age profile but he's made for the PL and would give us 3 years allowing Mason Greenwood and Rashford to develop further). At right back we should narrow our search to either Kieran Trippier or Shamus Coleman. Both have great experience in Premier league and terrific delivery in the final third. The Club has been crying out for a left footed winger for 5 years and even when we did recruit Angel Di Maria, we failed to integrate him into the club. Douglas Costa or Jadon Sancho should be recruited or at a push even Ryan Sessegnon. Quick, tricky direct and a weapon the club has not had for many years, even Nani would currently walk into this United team. My final selections for a left footed defender would be Nathan Ake or Kieran Tierney, both perfect to give balance to this squad.
So in conclusion the summer window would be 4 new players in and 5 or 6 out, disposing of Sanchez, Rojo, Darmian, Jones and Valencia for probably no more than £80M. The reality is any of these 6 from Maybe 15 top class selections would probably cost the club £450-500M and we would only receive £80M from player Sales. The simple truth is that this is now the extent to what needs to be invested into the club due to no real funds being spent in Sir Alex last 5 years and because of this we are playing catch up with European Elite clubs plus of course LVG and Jose recruitment has been beyond poor both with player Sales and new players bought.

Financially due to the club's size we could easily ammortise £450M investment over two windows over 5 years for player contracts but with the Glaziers taking over £1bn out from the club in repaying the debt and dividends, this simply is not going to happen anytime soon unless we are sold to a new Sugar Daddy!

 

[MackRobinson]

Clubs lose players in a number of ways, through sales, through retirement or through injury. Each time they have to be replaced.

This was never disputed...

In 2014 when United lost the experience of Rio, Vidic, Evra as well as the likes of Nani, we made almost nothing from it. So we were unable to reinvest and had to use our other revenue streams to do so. The net spend argument does not fact in this.

2014 has nothing to do with the time period in question and you are essentially proving my point. United were able to invest WITHOUT raising £300+ of funds through players sales (unlike the other teams on that list bar city). I don't know what's so hard to understand.

Last season, when we lost Rooney and later Ibra as well as Carrick again meant we lost vast amounts of experience for basically nothing. Ibra aside, the others we extracted much more than the initial outlay, we maximised out investment and these players gave us their absolute best year's. How do we calculate a value for that? Another reason net spend is flawed.

You're going off on a tangent. The original question (that you answered) dealt with transfer spending under Mourinho. It's funny you bring up Rooney (who all the fans wanted out) and Carrick (who barely played). When you compare what United lost over that time period to what teams like Juve and Chelsea lost your point has no merit.

People shouldn't be praising net spend clubs either. Especially those in the Premier League where every club receives at least £100million irrespective of finishing position. The figures for our main rivals will be much higher when everything is taken into account.

Now you are just sticking your fingers in your ears. Nobody is praising net spend. I specifically gave you context by providing a list of the players each of those teams lost to illustrate they weren't just spending that money to add to an existing squad. They had to REPLACE players, and in most cases quality players. It's not difficult to understand.

 

[Matt007a]

Mourinho will need to go first. Any top quality player looking in from the outside at the moment is unlikely to want to join. The heritage and size of the club means very little to ambitious players who want to win trophies in the next 2-3 years. We're miles from winning anything of note currently and frankly the football is dire.

Looking at the names in the posts above, how many of them would leave their current club to play for us in January? I honestly think most would turn it down. Mourinho moans that the players on his list weren't bought, but perhaps many of them just weren't interested in playing for him in our current state?

That said, we need a RB, CB, DM, RW and ST. Easy right?

 

[MackRobinson]

Are these figures accurate?

I was under the assumption that only City and PSG had outspent us over the last three years.

Have Chelsea really spent almost a hundred mil more than us in this period?

And Juventus have outspent City?

Taken from transfermarkt so I would presume so. Juventus are owned by the Agnelli family. The head of the family is worth over £10billion, the family itself is worth far more than that.

Juventus basically have the longest running sugar daddy owner in sport, since the 1920s.

The numbers you posted are inaccurate.

(16/17, 17/18, 18/19)
United spent £432m (£83m + £164m + £185m) not £386m
Liverpool spent £430m not £386m
Chelsea spent £530m not £477m

Juve and City look about right. Didn't bother to check the rest.

 

[IRELANDUNITED]

We need a top right back, a top centre back, a top centre midfielder (Fred?), a top right winger and a top centre forward, all in all about 400m just

 

[WensleyMU]

This was never disputed...


2014 has nothing to do with the time period in question and you are essentially proving my point. United were able to invest WITHOUT raising £300+ of funds through players sales (unlike the other teams on that list bar city). I don't know what's so hard to understand.


You're going off on a tangent. The original question (that you answered) dealt with transfer spending under Mourinho. It's funny you bring up Rooney (who all the fans wanted out) and Carrick (who barely played). When you compare what United lost over that time period to what teams like Juve and Chelsea lost your point has no merit.


Now you are just sticking your fingers in your ears. Nobody is praising net spend. I specifically gave you context by providing a list of the players each of those teams lost to illustrate they weren't just spending that money to add to an existing squad. They had to REPLACE players, and in most cases quality players. It's not difficult to understand.

I'm not sure whats so hard to grasp for you here. 2014 is absolutely relevant. The club is still rebuilding from that summer. van Gaal began the clear out, Jose was the tasked with the rebuild. Why United not having to sell is a negative, well you are going to have to explain that one...

Are you telling me United didn't need to replace the players lost over the last few years? I gave you a list of players who United had lost, for little or no monetary gain, who all needed and in some cases still need replacing. You claim it wasn't disputed, but then you go and dispute it.

 

[WensleyMU]

The numbers you posted are inaccurate.

(16/17, 17/18, 18/19)
United spent £432m (£83m + £164m + £185m) not £386m
Liverpool spent £430m not £386m
Chelsea spent £530m not £477m

Juve and City look about right. Didn't bother to check the rest.

Use the UK site which is in GBP and not the German one, which is in EUROS. I've made the same mistake before and I believe the media does so to, probably intentionally on their part. If you run the bold figures through a currency converter you will get basically the figures I stated (I accept they are a mill or two off as I just rounded the figures).

18/19 - £74.43million
17/18 - £147.96million
16/17 - £166.5million

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/manchester-united/alletransfers/verein/985

 

[André Dominguez]

We need to rebuild the squad from the core. But before buying, we need to release the deadwood, which is probably going to happen this summer due to contract endings. Bad part is that we weren't able to at least get some money from those players this season.

 

[Minimalist]

To play attacking football and score more goals? Nothing. Literally nothing whatsoever.

We have ample talent at the club already to be in a position in line with our domestic rivals. Coaching prevents that from happening.

Can we improve? Yes. We desperately need a proper right winger with end product (Mourinho has refused to address this) and I think a viable centre half option that isn’t ludicrously priced (see Harry Maguire for £75 million) would be brilliant for us. Cover for Shaw wouldn’t go amiss either.

The OP is typical dramatic rhetoric. Six or seven players? Jesus. I read that years back.

Liverpool play great football with James Milner and Gini Wijnaldum in midfield. Arsenal have improved and barely bought anybody. Chelsea look better specifically due to the coaching that occurs.

We’ve bought a new right back. The lad has barely played (and he’s the same age as Alexander-Arnold, for what it’s worth).

We bought a new midfielder. He’s called Fred apparently.

We’ve got a £70 million striker. Still on track to score less than his last season at Everton.

We’ve got Paul bloody Pogba. That should be enough.

Convince yourself we need lots of new players. Keep banging that head against the wall.

Great post. Some could really do with digesting this.

 

[Minimalist]

No one gets the spending point imo.

No one says the board didn't spend. They spend for sure. We're saying that we have spent the minimum that can keep the team relevant around the other top 4 teams and that's it. Regarding the state of the squad left by Moyes, with loads of old players retiring and leaving and loads of deadwood that needed chopping, What we had spent under LVG and Mourinho was the minimum to keep the team at top 4 spot. Moyes left us in a pretty bad shape, what were people expecting?

You have absolutely no proof of that.

 

[meno Agenti]

To play attacking football and score more goals? Nothing. Literally nothing whatsoever.

We have ample talent at the club already to be in a position in line with our domestic rivals. Coaching prevents that from happening.

Can we improve? Yes. We desperately need a proper right winger with end product (Mourinho has refused to address this) and I think a viable centre half option that isn’t ludicrously priced (see Harry Maguire for £75 million) would be brilliant for us. Cover for Shaw wouldn’t go amiss either.

The OP is typical dramatic rhetoric. Six or seven players? Jesus. I read that years back.

Liverpool play great football with James Milner and Gini Wijnaldum in midfield. Arsenal have improved and barely bought anybody. Chelsea look better specifically due to the coaching that occurs.

We’ve bought a new right back. The lad has barely played (and he’s the same age as Alexander-Arnold, for what it’s worth).

We bought a new midfielder. He’s called Fred apparently.

We’ve got a £70 million striker. Still on track to score less than his last season at Everton.

We’ve got Paul bloody Pogba. That should be enough.

Convince yourself we need lots of new players. Keep banging that head against the wall.

4th This

 

[meno Agenti]

This. I couldn't have said it better. The manager need to go.

 

[lsd]

Whatever it takes to pay up Mourinho's contract would be a huge step in the right direction

 

[bosnian_red]

£386million.

For comparison, City have spent £542million, Liverpool £386million, Juventus £546million, Chelsea £477million, Spurs £180million, Arsenal £280million.

The magical £400million figure banded about by some looks a bit limp compared with some of those figures.

I hope someone can explain how £386 million to rebuild the side compared with £540million to add players to an already good squad means we should be dominant.

Who's saying we should be dominant? I'd take not playing the worst style if football seen in any big club in world football, not being in 10th place, not being outplayed by relegation fodder regularly, etc. You mention Liverpoolbut fail go mention they also sold Coutinho during that time. And you really cant mention one without the other. It's like if we sold Pogba in January and didnt replace him with the 150m we would pocket.

Anyway. Mourinho has been here for 3 years and it's only gotten worse and worse. It's not a simple matter of spending, considering every player Mourinho has bought has flopped to a huge degree. You also cant ignore we got 2 supposed world class players on free's essentially. Players who if not for their contract situations, wouldve been like 120m combined at least.

 

[Murray3007]

Since SAF retired, how many signings have we made that have actually been a real success ? not sure I can think of any to be honest, we have had a few who have had some brilliant patches but never anyone over a season that I could really think of. any one any names to band about ?

 

[Robbie Boy]

One million euro.

 

[BrilliantOrange]

A jillion dollars wouldn’t cover it if Jose and Woody were left in charge to spend it.

Came here to say this.. Every attacker will drown if style of play will continue like this.. I would have no confidence whatsover that in the current state that our buys will be thought through..

 

[Fujiland]

Dear lord.... Of course it's selling to buy, hence the term, net spend.

And United are the most successful football business, not any of these net spend clubs. The flawed net spend argument doesn't take into account revenue from other streams, hence its heavily biased against those that operate a more sustainable business model.

Irrespective of where the income comes from, it all goes on the balance sheet at the end of the year.

I'm glad you even know the balance sheet. So you should know that the loss from bad purchases goes there too. This is a business not your children who want new toys every day.

 

[MackRobinson]

I'm not sure whats so hard to grasp for you here. 2014 is absolutely relevant. The club is still rebuilding from that summer. van Gaal began the clear out, Jose was the tasked with the rebuild. Why United not having to sell is a negative, well you are going to have to explain that one...

Are you telling me United didn't need to replace the players lost over the last few years? I gave you a list of players who United had lost, for little or no monetary gain, who all needed and in some cases still need replacing. You claim it wasn't disputed, but then you go and dispute it.

1) This is the question that you replied to:

How much have we spent since Mourinho took over? You can get rid of each and every one of them and arguments can be made that we'd be better off with the money to find replacements. Meanwhile you have other clubs who know what they need and realize you dont need £100m signings in every position to succeed.

So we are talking from 2016/2017

2) I didn't say United not having to sell is a negative (this is the point you keep missing). What I'm saying is it shows the owners invested without requiring Mourinho to sell players, and my point is that is a luxury very few teams had (I use Juve, Chelsea, and Liverpool as examples in this three year window).

3) Again, you are missing the point. Other teams had to replace players as well, and in most cases these were far more quality players than what Mourinho had to replace in that 3 year window (Liverpool lost Coutinho, Juve lost Pogba, Chelsea lost Courtiois and Diego Costa)

 

[Gentleman Jim]

To dispose of Jose and his assistants would probably cost about £35m in compensation to them. You may also have to pay significant compensation to the club your next boss currently works for (unless he's currently "resting").
There's then the cost of acquiring a new set of players (the positions that Jose wanted to replace but was prevented from doing, plus swapping a few that the new guy doesn't fancy).
The replacenent players can either be younger with lower wages and a longer shelf life and better potential sell on value but less likely to win silverware right away or largely older players with likelihood of instant team improvement but more costly all things considered.
Which way you go us dependent on how much patience your board and fanbase can excersise.
It's a dilemma for sure.

 

[IronCroos37]

minimum of 300 gross +new manager

 

[Bogga]

Insert video of Trump saying "billions and billions and billions and billions..." and so on

 

[KingMinger22]

I've said it before - all the best teams have 22 first team players of top quality. We don't have a starting XI that can match. Man City, Real Madrid, Juventus, Barcelona, Bayern Munich - all have incredible strength in depth.

We don't have that across the board. We need to invest in our squad. If we buy duds we should move them on and replace them. Look at the turnover at City, look how many defenders and goalkeepers Pep bought before he had it right.

This.

In terms of what we need, assuming we spend widely, at present market rates:


£50-80m on a RB
£75-100m on a CB
£80-200m on a RW
£80-200m on a CF

We need a Neymar level signing. At least one of that caliber.

We will not get it.

 

[KingMinger22]

People saying "£300m" I think are grossly underestimating things.

A true worldclass player (e.g. a Kane, Neymar, Hazard, KDB, etc.) would cost £200m+

 

[He'lmurderyah15]

Would love Kieran Tierney to compete with Luke Shaw. Don't know how Shaw is getting away with it the whole time. He's still overweight and half the time looks like he's completely lost and doesn't understand the position he's playing. But then he goes and does something half decent going forward and his mistakes at the back are forgotten about. Look back through goals we've conceded, 70% come down his side.

Would love Declan Rice as a 6. Like Tierney, I think the squad needs players who every week will want to prove a point. Whether it's Brighton at home or City away, these guys will have the same mentality because they are still trying to make their career. Too many current United players are in a comfort zone and turn up and decide to run whenever it suits them.

Just a quote from Carricks book 'Sir Alex never told us how to play. We were his players. We were Manchester United players. For his team talks, he'd start nice and calm and could finish in a whirlwind of aggression. He'd finish by saying 'its the easiest thing in the world to work hard. Nothing stops you from working hard'. The three things he always mentioned were 'Don't be afraid to work hard. Concentration. Penetration'..'

I feel the concentration part is a huge issue for the likes of Shaw and Martial. Watch them the next time they're both on the left together, it's carnage when teams attack them.
Jose has some flaws but the players need to look at themselves too.

 

[Roboc7]

People saying "£300m" I think are grossly underestimating things.

A true worldclass player (e.g. a Kane, Neymar, Hazard, KDB, etc.) would cost £200m+

They would cost that now but other than Neymar they didn’t when they were bought, this is the key issue it’s all about how you spend the money.

Liverpool bought Salah for initially about 40m, they also managed to integrate him into their team and improve him. We signed Alexis who was regraded as one of the leagues best players and he has been useless and manager has no clue what to do with him. If we’d bought Salah he would probably be useless and that sums United up.

There are two ways forward throwing hundreds and hundreds of millions at the team in one window which is never going to happen. Or a new manager, DOF, a new structure, improving players, making better signings and some kind of plan.

 

[Sir Scott McToMinay]

Zero, Zilch, absolutely nothing.
We have got plenty of young talented players, give them the chance and build something solid that would last.
We suck at this spending big money business, we're absolutely horrible at it, stop doing that please.

 

[Mcking]

Mourinho's payout and three fingers to signify him being sacked in his last three jobs.

 

[RedB4ndiT]

We need to spend better not more. We've already spent 500M under Mourinho but he doesn't rate any of them.

Makes you wonder how screwed up our scouting and player transfer processes are. A scout gives a recommendation then Woodward asks Mou if he would like to sign the player then Jose gives the go signal and then proceeds to bench the said new signing. Happened to Miki, Bailly, Lindelof, Fred, on and on.

We also need to stop targeting City targets and go after Mourinho targets like Perisic etc.

 

[Nikelesh Reddy]

I know there is a big proportion of people who blame Jose for the current form, and some of it is down to him, no doubt about that. However I was looking at the squad last night vs Juventus thinking how poor some of our first 11 looked up against a top top team.

I'm going to be probably a little too rough and pessimistic but suggest some of our starting 11 should be on the bench as back up really. Lukaku, Rashford, Young all need improving up on and should be warming the bench.

We look like we need a number 9, 10, at least 1 CB, a RB, RW a CM who can control the game.

We're half a team away from being anywhere near the top teams from what I can tell, and Jose is right in some sense that the other top teams don't rest and go out buying players to improve them even when they are already strong. Considering our scouts are shite we'll have to pay top dollar for top players. So I'd say 300 million minimum is what we need to spend over the next few transfer windows.

70-80 million pounds on a top ball playing CB...50-60 million pounds on an attacking RB...Maybe 50 million on a CM(because the 50 we spent on Fred was money beautifully spent)....Loads of money to sign a top RW....So we need about 150-180 million quid,because obviously our scouts are useless...

 

[Kyle2834]

Would love Kieran Tierney to compete with Luke Shaw. Don't know how Shaw is getting away with it the whole time. He's still overweight and half the time looks like he's completely lost and doesn't understand the position he's playing. But then he goes and does something half decent going forward and his mistakes at the back are forgotten about. Look back through goals we've conceded, 70% come down his side.

Would love Declan Rice as a 6. Like Tierney, I think the squad needs players who every week will want to prove a point. Whether it's Brighton at home or City away, these guys will have the same mentality because they are still trying to make their career. Too many current United players are in a comfort zone and turn up and decide to run whenever it suits them.

Just a quote from Carricks book 'Sir Alex never told us how to play. We were his players. We were Manchester United players. For his team talks, he'd start nice and calm and could finish in a whirlwind of aggression. He'd finish by saying 'its the easiest thing in the world to work hard. Nothing stops you from working hard'. The three things he always mentioned were 'Don't be afraid to work hard. Concentration. Penetration'..'

I feel the concentration part is a huge issue for the likes of Shaw and Martial. Watch them the next time they're both on the left together, it's carnage when teams attack them.
Jose has some flaws but the players need to look at themselves too.

I think it’s to do with Matic also covering that side and the opposition targeting our left side (e.g. Juventus)

 

[rojo81]

Hmm, interesting but ultimately nonsense.

You have decided that only transfer income should be considered when looking at a teams spending. Some clubs, for whatever reason decide on a policy of selling to buy, others source revenue from other streams.

Net spend is a term created by clubs who have failed. It's a new term, possibly from the Scouse fans when Rafa was in charge and did naff all after the CL win despite spending loads.

United fans using it is just sad, ridiculously sad. Though some are so drsperdes to trash the club, anything goes.

That makes no sense at all. So in your mind, if MU sells De Gea, Pogba, Rashford and Martial for 400 euros and bring another 4 players for 450 euros they should be miles better because they spent 450 euros?? Makes no sense at all, of course net spending is way more important and relevant.

 

[mitchmouse]

It's not how much we need to spend, it's who we need to spend it on. Look at Juve's team -- top class yet few of them cost much in today's terms (although I know Prem teams have to pay a premium because of the money in the game)

 

[LoneStar]

You don't need world class players on every position to play good football and win matches. We are currently playing far below the sum of our parts.

I'm pretty sure we would look far better if we had some form of tactics while playing. For instance, teams like Liverpool and Spurs also have a lot of players who are not world class. It's the system that will get the best out of average players and make the world class ones shine.

We do need a world class signing or two, but that is no excuse for the way we are currently performing. The squad we have is easily a top 4 minimum team imho.

But as for the money we need to spend, no amount of money we spend will be enough if we keep hiring managers with completely different philosophies. Unless this is taken care of, we will constantly need to 'rebuild' every 2-3 years.