If the choices are signing one superstar/strengthening the squad - what do you do?

[Wumminator]

So it seems if we listen to rumours that Sancho will cost 105 million up front. That might leave say - 15/20 million left to strengthen the squad.

This would be a significant upgrade.

On the other hand - if Brooks is say 30 million and Grealish 50. That would leave us 45 million to sign a cb. We wouldn’t have as strong of a first team, and these players might be on the bench. But we’d have players to bring on.

There is a lot of assumptions here of course. I’m just wondering what you would do. Prices I’ve listed might be wrong and I don’t want to go down the x player is worth x amount route. More so, what is the correct way forward?

 

[VanGaalEra]

Reminds me of when we had the chance to sign Sneijder/Hazard etc but walked away and went for value in the market, we ended up with Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Ashley Young and Valencia.

One fantastic footballer please. There's no quick fix, I'm happy if we take our time to re-build to a position of strength.

FYI - I like Brooks as a player.

 

[HackeyC]

A squad helps you get far in the League/FA Cup. A star gives you a chance at winning the League/Champions League.

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

I take the star right now. I trust our defense enough, but backup for our attackers might not be enough if we want to fight on many fronts.
I still have some faith in Lingard though unlike most people here. Sadly he will not get enough games to turn his form around.

 

[Jibbs]

Strengthening the squad.

 

[Bobcat]

We need both depth AND world class quality, unless Liverpool and City fall of a cliff i doubt we will challenge next year, so honestly as long as we dont squander our money on more duds, im happy.

If i had to choose though, i would say go for depth. Not that i dont want Sancho, but 120 million is a steep fecking price and we have to consider hes actually unproven in the EPL

 

[croadyman]

Sign both Sancho & Grealish but need to think creatively with both deals as there is no chance in a million years we can pay for both of them up front in this current situation

 

[Jibbs]

Reminds me of when we had the chance to sign Sneijder/Hazard etc but walked away and went for value in the market, we ended up with Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Ashley Young and Valencia.

One fantastic footballer please. There's no quick fix, I'm happy if we take our time to re-build to a position of strength.

FYI - I like Brooks as a player.

That was a different situation as we already were title winners / challengers and needed to be even better. Right now there are many shortcomings in the side which one player no matter how great he is, won't fix. For eg just adding prime RVP in this current side won't turn it into title contenders next year.

 

[Godfather]

Normally I'd take the one guy that takes you up a few levels. Looking at the grim state of our squad though I'm not so sure

 

[VanGaalEra]

That was a different situation as we already were title winners / challengers and needed to be even better. Right now there are many shortcomings in the side which one player no matter how great he is, won't fix. For eg just adding prime RVP in this current side won't turn it into title contenders next year.

It's why I said I'm not after no quick fix, I'm happy for the side to build step by step over 2-3 years. I'd rather that, than spunking money on 30-40M footballers who end up doing a Phil Jones and Ashley Young at the club.

 

[croadyman]

The most frustrating thing is that due to our owners we are having to make this choice

 

[RedCurry]

How about we just focus on the player’s ability on specific items regardless of whether they are stars or not? From a forward, I’d like to see link up play, dribbling ability, decision making. From a midfielder I would want positional awareness, weight of passes, defensive effort. From fullbacks I look for stamina, crossing ability and positional strength etc. If we can get these qualities for cheap, I am all for it. But analytics in sports are so strong now that a player with top ability usually goes for top dollar.

Still I trust that scouts can unearth good relatively unknown players and it is the manager’s job to focus on the right skills.

 

[IrishMcD]

Spend the money on a fireworks display outside the homes of Ed Woodward and Joel Glazer. Maybe a horses head if we have money left over

 

[Jibbs]

The current side will only become title contender with such additions in one window:

Sancho
Jimenez
Grealish
Niguez
Chilwell
Upamecano

Now I don't know how many millions will all of them cost together but if we can find quality players in the budget on similar positions that will be a coup. It is a test of our scouting and recruitment team, which am sure they will fail. Liverpool built their squad like that and only did marquee signings when they were ready to challenge for the titles.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

option 3, do you sell a pogba or a martial to help rebuild, like liverpool had to do with coutinho. no coutinho gift and no liverpool title this year. or do we just accept that we probably arent going to be much stronger next year and take our time. downside to that is, if we aren't better the pressure to sack ole will mount and we will be back to scratch with ronald koeman saying he needs to buy a new 11 players to come fourth

 

[Wumminator]

The most frustrating thing is that due to our owners we are having to make this choice

I find spending 100+ on a player obscene as it is. I think a 120/130 million window would satisfy anyone.

 

[Wumminator]

option 3, do you sell a pogba or a martial to help rebuild, like liverpool had to do with coutinho. no coutinho gift and no liverpool title this year. or do we just accept that we probably arent going to be much stronger next year and take our time. downside to that is, if we aren't better the pressure to sack ole will mount and we will be back to scratch with ronald koeman saying he needs to buy a new 11 players to come fourth

We could spend a similar amount of money as Liverpool did without selling anyone. Our owners spend a lot more than Liverpool’s wonders.

 

[croadyman]

I find spending 100+ on a player obscene as it is. I think a 120/130 million window would satisfy anyone.

Only if it was spent on Grealish (£55m plus addons), Badiashile (£30m) and decent RW option too

 

[Jev]

I think our biggest weakness right now is not the strength of our starting eleven but the gap in quality between the A and the B team. Just one or two injuries to Shaw, Maguire, AWB, Matic, Pogba, Bruno, Rashford, Martial or Greenwood and we are already significantly weaker. My main focus, if it's a choice between either/or, would be to fix that by bringing in young, promising, reasonably priced players in the mould of Donny van de Beek or David Brooks, who could provide width and competition now and might nail down a starting spot eventually. We have too many holes in the squad to spend 90 per cent of our transfer budget to fill out just one of them.

 

[He'sRaldo]

Look at the history of huge signings of superstars, and judge based on that.

 

[Sandikan]

Look at the history of huge signings of superstars, and judge based on that.

I'd argue Sancho should be compared to the Keane, Rooney, Ferdinand set of signings, rather than judged against the recent Di Maria, Lukaku types.

 

[Jev]

option 3, do you sell a pogba or a martial to help rebuild, like liverpool had to do with coutinho. no coutinho gift and no liverpool title this year. or do we just accept that we probably arent going to be much stronger next year and take our time. downside to that is, if we aren't better the pressure to sack ole will mount and we will be back to scratch with ronald koeman saying he needs to buy a new 11 players to come fourth

Why on earth would we sell our two most skilled players? Liverpool didn't sell Coutinho because they wanted to, they sold him because he wanted to go to Barcelona. There's no indication that either of Martial or Pogba wants out.

Besides, you might as well mention us (Ronaldo) as a less encouraging example of what can happen when you sell your star player and rebuild.

 

[Sandikan]

The Sancho v Squad additions is difficult because we don't know who the latter would be, and how they'll perform.

If you could guarantee a quality centre back, Grealish performing well, and a third similarly well performing player - that would probably be the way to go.

Which you can't - which is why you most likely go for the guy on the borderline of world class already.
Would we have preferred Rooney or 3 squad players that summer!!

 

[croadyman]

The Sancho v Squad additions is difficult because we don't know who the latter would be, and how they'll perform.

If you could guarantee a quality centre back, Grealish performing well, and a third similarly well performing player - that would probably be the way to go.

Which you can't - which is why you most likely go for the guy on the borderline of world class already.
Would we have preferred Rooney or 3 squad players that summer!!

This is a very good post and analyses the choice between the two perfectly

 

[croadyman]

I'd argue Sancho should be compared to the Keane, Rooney, Ferdinand set of signings, rather than judged against the recent Di Maria, Lukaku types.

Yeah definitely needs to be compared to the British ones

 

[Fortitude]

Star.

We haven't had a functioning one for a long, long time so the perspective toward what a star is and does for a team might well be blurred for us as a fanbase at the moment, but a player coming in and performing like a star would not only elevate the 1st xi, but also the substitutes as well. A dependable star has a load that can be put upon him that affords others more chance for rest and enables you to sneak a lesser player or two into a side enough times to give the starters the rest they need.

Some of our squad members simply cannot play top level football within tight constraints where they have to pull their weight 1:1, but tilt that and have the opposition completely preoccupied by a star, and the space these lesser players get to play in widens by quite a bit. Fergie blagged a number of players who weren't of a standard where they'd start for other teams of our then calibre by supplementing them with stars who opposing teams couldn't take their eyes off of.

There's no point bringing a bar up from average to a bit more than average with squaddies that don't back stars - the net result there is the bar/top level being brought down not elevated. Your best performing players are your bar and you get functional, serviceable sorts in (or make what you have in your squad fit this billing) and around them. Liverpool have done this perfectly with their midfield and Firminho being there to get the best out of Mane, Salah and the full-backs.

Imagine Bruno's MotM games for us on a game-by-game basis, or a Pogba during his superb run of games for Mourinho performing and delivering 8/10 and upward performances. That kind of player makes other 1st team players better and raises the bar for not just those 10 players, but the squad, the support and gives the opposition something to fear before a game has even kicked off.

A proper performing star is a no-brainer as the answer to the question.

 

[He'sRaldo]

I'd argue Sancho should be compared to the Keane, Rooney, Ferdinand set of signings, rather than judged against the recent Di Maria, Lukaku types.

That's the hope, although recent history with superstar signings (in general, not just ours) says otherwise.

Both have risk, but I wouldn't mind the superstar signing, as long as it's for a fair price. But in general I prefer the right fit over anything else, be it superstar or supposed rotation.

 

[The Man Himself]

Superstar.

 

[Sandikan]

In fairness - Sancho isn't quite a superstar yet anyway.
He's in the tier just below and we'd hope he became one here!

 

[BenitoSTARR]

I think for me I’d rather have one as close to guaranteed success as possible a la Rooney than 3 Park Ji Sung style signings right now if that makes sense?

Unless you could guarantee Greenwood would be as productive next season as this and not get injured!

I think a great team improves its first XI where possible and natural demotion of previous first team players creates the quality depth.

Id rather take the gamble on Sancho this window and see how Greenwood, Williams, Laird, Mengi etc develop this season if we had to.

That said I wouldn’t be at all disappointed by a window if we got in a good combination of 3 of RW/CAM/DM/CB/LB as squad option in the £30-40m mark instead.

 

[Baneofthegame]

Star all the way.

 

[Revan]

A superstar improves the squad. I much rather prefer Sancho then 2-3 random players who are not as good as what we have. Grealish wouldn't start for us, neither some 30M CB. Brooks is coming from a bad injury, and anyway would be like fifth/sixth option.

I would much rather prefer Sancho. Quality over quantity, as Liverpool has shown.

 

[Revan]

The current side will only become title contender with such additions in one window:

Sancho
Jimenez
Grealish
Niguez
Chilwell
Upamecano

Now I don't know how many millions will all of them cost together but if we can find quality players in the budget on similar positions that will be a coup. It is a test of our scouting and recruitment team, which am sure they will fail. Liverpool built their squad like that and only did marquee signings when they were ready to challenge for the titles.

This is over 500 million. No chance we will spend this much in the next 6 transfer windows combined.

 

[El-Manos]

Superstar. We’ve enough squad cross.

 

[bosnian_red]

Without a doubt Sancho. Any answer is wrong. He's a world class player and a generational talent. You don't get the chance to sign someone like him too often, especially when it suits your needs perfectly. He also helps the squad depth out by giving us a group of 4 players who can all rotate among the front 3 positions and having the other off the bench (Martial, Rashford, Greenwood and Sancho). Makes our squad and starting 11 stronger. Its a no brainer, provided we can actually afford him (and if we can't, then the whole exercise of chasing him for 2 years was a waste of time and other questions need asking).

Brooks is someone you go for when you are set like Liverpool are and can afford to take punts. Grealish is a decent player but disgustingly overpriced for what he actually is as a player. We need depth in other areas, but we can make do with what we have. Our attacking lack of depth leads to injuries to our main players because of our lack of options.

 

[Old Ma Crow]

Superstar

Spend on Improving the coaching too.

 

[pcaming]

A couple of great signings, I'm tired of ending up with so much dross.

 

[Gazza]

Reducing the question to "superstar vs strengthening" is a pretty facile way to look at it, in my view.

It is about getting the right player. Sancho (who I assume is the "superstar") is a top shelf talent, seems perfectly primed to play in this United team and do it for perhaps 10 years or more. This might be our best/only chance to get him. So do it and worry about adding squad depth next summer, especially as we should be able to qualify for the CL more comfortably than last season.

If we were talking about Gareth Bale, who is also a "superstar", then my answer would be different. It's about what is right for our team/squad.

 

[bosnian_red]

The current side will only become title contender with such additions in one window:

Sancho
Jimenez
Grealish
Niguez
Chilwell
Upamecano

Now I don't know how many millions will all of them cost together but if we can find quality players in the budget on similar positions that will be a coup. It is a test of our scouting and recruitment team, which am sure they will fail. Liverpool built their squad like that and only did marquee signings when they were ready to challenge for the titles.

Bad idea to go for players in the premier league. All the teams have lots of money so will rinse you and charge 200% of what the player is actually worth, if not more. For Grealish at £65/75m, we can get Van de Beek at £30m. For Chilwell at 60m, we can get Reguillon or Telles for 30m. Maguire was 80m and Upamecano had a release clause at €50m earlier this summer. Thiago is priced at 30m right now.

Gotta be smart with our purchases... sometimes you go all out for the generational talent like Sancho, but other than that, its very dumb to go for the most expensive option as we need both quantity and quality.

 

[BorisManUtd]

Sancho as I'm not sure we would win the potential battle for him in 2021. He'd be bit cheaper then but likes of Liverpool and Real would surely join the race for him.

Our defence is far from ideal, we probably also need 1-2 players in midfield but I still think we can manage with what we've got in that department until January and then sign someone for one of those positions. Sancho is 20 and already a top player probably and this is one of those situations where we have a genuine chance to sign one of those top players. Really shouldn't waste it imo