If Sancho (108m) is the supposed superstar we will get, I would get Van De Beek (25m), Badiashile (20m), and Zakaria (20m)
If the choices are signing one superstar/strengthening the squad - what do you do?
- Thread starter Wumminator
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Sancho is a must. For all of the criticism that has been directed at out reshaped defence they actually improved massively over the previous season. In attack we are still coming up 30+ goals short of Liverpool and like everyone I can name countless points lost this season due to an inability to turn dominance into goals. Sancho elevates the team massively, far more than 3 smart signings could ever do. We have the funds to make this happen and it does not preclude us going back into the market before it closes if we can move on Smalling, Lingard, Pereira etc.
I think any time you can get a superstar that is still up and coming, you take it and ask questions later. I’d much rather have one Ferrari than three Honda’s. Depth is easier to find than a true superstar.
I really don't like abstract comparisons. In theory I'd say that strengthening your squad is a better option, but we have to consider the market options – and I don't think that there's a set of players available for us in needed positions (DM/CB etc.) at the moment. While signing Sancho is as close to a certain success as it gets, basically like the Hazard signing that we've missed out on.
Grealesh, Brooks and a 45m CB? Not for me, no (plus, Grealish is going to cost more than that).
Grealesh, Brooks and a 45m CB? Not for me, no (plus, Grealish is going to cost more than that).
Sancho > over three “sensible” signings. Specifically because I don’t think these “sensible” signings — I.E. the likes of Brooks, and CB options like Joe Rogan or Pau Torres are good enough for anything more than depth.
I don’t mind Grealish, but I do question as to whether he is that good. Sancho, on the other hand, is an absolute menace. I’m 99% sure he will be a roaring success.
EDIT: @harms post above has just echoed my thoughts.
I don’t mind Grealish, but I do question as to whether he is that good. Sancho, on the other hand, is an absolute menace. I’m 99% sure he will be a roaring success.
EDIT: @harms post above has just echoed my thoughts.
Squad squad squad. Depth is by far the biggest issue in our squad. It's absolutely dreadful from the bench and we need 4 first team additions or will absolutely drop points in any busy spells, injury spells and latter stages of cups will be too far. Draws all season due to no presence off bench.
A season can be written off because of 3 bad weeks
A season can be written off because of 3 bad weeks
This was exactly the point I made later.
Agreed. For me it's a false dichotomy, because signing the superstar is supposed to strengthen the squad by strengthening your first eleven and pushing the previous starter on the bench. Also I assume that @Wumminator isn't actually talking about a star but a more expensive player, the reason Sancho is more expensive than Grealish because he is already far better and should increase the gap in the coming years while Grealish isn't even clearly better than our starters, he would be a nice squad option if he was actually cheap but he isn't and it's the same for the others, I wouldn't spend 30m on Badiaschile that's just silly at this point of his career.
What do you do with the 100m that you spent on Grealish, Brooks and a CB spend 70% of the time on the bench or in the stands? You should always sign the best player available and if we need 2-3 years to build a great team than so be it at least we will have players that we actually rated.
Sancho might eventually be a superstar but I really don't see him being one in the first season.
I take the squad option because knowing Ole, he'll run our starters into the ground in the first half of the season. I'm tired of our players being overplayed because the competition is poor.
I take the squad option because knowing Ole, he'll run our starters into the ground in the first half of the season. I'm tired of our players being overplayed because the competition is poor.
I insist. We must get sancho
Star every day. They are the ones who can make average players look good. More average players just make the other average players continue to look average.
Squad,if Sancho got injured we are right back where we were.
The squad for me. Unless you're talking Messi or Ronaldo level superstar but are we able to say that about Sancho?
Even then, I think I'd be more inclined to have a better overall squad.
Even then, I think I'd be more inclined to have a better overall squad.
If we only sign Sancho we'll struggle to do as well as we've done this year. Squad first, slowly slowly catchy monkey.
My thinking exactly. Thanks for saving me the typing.
Definitely look to bring in top quality. One world class player can transform a team. Buying squad depth rarely works, just look at Spurs with Bale's money, or how poorly we spent Ronaldo's money.
At the same time, look at Pogba, Dembele, Coutinho, Griezmann, Neymar and many more examples of big money transfers that haven't really been the success stories you'd demand for that money.
I think a lot of it comes down to luck and timing. The right players available at the right time, and at the right age. It's not often it all comes together, and recruitment is the hardest part of the game to get right, especially in the transfer markets we've seen in the past few years.
But ask yourself, if we had the chance to go back to the end of January, and sign Bruno as we did, or sign van den Beek and Brooks (if he was fit) for example, would we have finished third?
At the same time, look at Pogba, Dembele, Coutinho, Griezmann, Neymar and many more examples of big money transfers that haven't really been the success stories you'd demand for that money.
I think a lot of it comes down to luck and timing. The right players available at the right time, and at the right age. It's not often it all comes together, and recruitment is the hardest part of the game to get right, especially in the transfer markets we've seen in the past few years.
But ask yourself, if we had the chance to go back to the end of January, and sign Bruno as we did, or sign van den Beek and Brooks (if he was fit) for example, would we have finished third?
I have no faith in the board to do either effectively so I’m just happy when we actually get a deal done.
With our current set up we’re in no position to be picky; given the choice I’d have a Director of Football with autonomy to structure the squad; until then OgS is just babysitting until his replacement arrives & wants his own signings.
With our current set up we’re in no position to be picky; given the choice I’d have a Director of Football with autonomy to structure the squad; until then OgS is just babysitting until his replacement arrives & wants his own signings.
It depends on what position we are at the moment.
Right now I would say Sancho all the way, even if he's the only addition.
We have a squad full of medium players but lack special ones. I think getting Sancho right now would gets us closer to what we want on the long run than adding 3 squad players. Specially since we have a bunch of squad players we need to get rid of.
Right now I would say Sancho all the way, even if he's the only addition.
We have a squad full of medium players but lack special ones. I think getting Sancho right now would gets us closer to what we want on the long run than adding 3 squad players. Specially since we have a bunch of squad players we need to get rid of.
Sancho > Squad. Need to improve our starting 11. One piece at a time will work. Each year get a great signing and in 2 years or so we will have a great team! Next year Haaland...that'll be fun.
Yeah that would be good, only set us back £450m+
Well obviously the superstar alluded to is Sancho who is English, our big signings that you are alluding to right as flops are all the foreign ones I would assume. Bryan Robson, Keane, Cole, Ferdinand, Rooney were all huge deals as well, most of them records at the time. That is a pretty good history to say the least
Well the problem there though is who is going to pay big money for them? It goes for a lot of our players expensive or not fee wise, but there are plenty of other players should hold decent value we could consider selling if its a case of sacrifice:
DeGea
Dalot
Bailly
Fred
Not saying we should sell them, but purely in terms of our current squad they are far more expendible than Pogba and Martial and there combined values would be somewhere around the Sancho fee.
Then you still have the Sanchez wages saved, you still have the deadwood Smalling, Jones, Rojo, Mensah, Lingard, Pereira, Mata
For me there are also players simply not good enough in Lindelof & Daniel James
Thats 12 players for me long term that there are reasons to consider selling, not saying sell all of them but thats certainly over £200m worth of players added to SAnchez wages saved.
For me ONE signings, superstar or not simply is nowhere near good enough, which seems the general consensus as people saying that are followin git with "forget about full strengthening until next summer". But then again, people are also saying rightly so, missing out on Sancho if we could get him is a huge mistake as he is such a talent.
We cant sign Sancho and fix all our other problems this window as well. What in my opinion we should be able to do is get somewhere in between if we were clever and active enough.
We dont need to replace every player we sell with a new player in as we have a big squad and youngsters, not saying all perfect replacements but:
We have Henderson if we sell DeGea
We have Laird/Williams if we sell Dalot and Mensah
We have Mengi/Tuanzabe if we sell 3/4 centre backs
We have McTominay if we sell Fred, we also have Mjebri
Also signing somebody like Grealish would cover pretty much all the outgoings of Mata/Lingard/Pereirra as he can play all of there rolls pretty much. Our squad is top heavy and I still feel we could make a couple of big signings and a cheaper riskier one like a Gabriel/Badiashile/Soumare/Koopmeiners etc etc etc if we were ruthless enough selling certain players....its something you see Madrid doing often in transfer windows and its exactly what Barcelona are trying to do now
Dortmund may have said they want £108 million but we don’t know if they’d take a bit less as we’ve not actually bid for Sancho yet, if we offered £95 million they’d probably take it in the current climate.
Then move on sellable or unwanted players like Romero if Henderson is coming back, Dalot, Bailly, Jones, Rojo and Pereira which could bring in £40-£45 million. We’ve saved a hell of a lot of money over the last year in wages moving Sanchez, Lukaku, Young, Fellaini, Herrera, Valencia and Darmian all on and only added Fernandes, Maguire, AWB and James in that same time.
A lot of places in the squad are going to be filled bringing players through from the under 23’s like Laird, Mengi, Garner, Levitt and Mejbri much like Tuanzebe, Williams, McTominay, Rashford and Greenwood before them.
It’s quality that’s needed rather than quantity which is how we’ve ended up where we have as we had a bloated squad of squad players rather than standout quality, Sancho is a game winner and could often be the difference between 3 points and a point in the league or winning a cup.
I like Brooks and he looks a decent player but he much like Douglas Costa, Chiesa and Coman are squad players that won’t elevate us nor build on this season and we’re in the Champions League next season not Europa.
Yes we also need a defensive midfielder, a centre back if Tuanzebe can’t stay fit, a left footed left back alternative to Shaw and cover for Fernandes BUT we’ve got a clear shot at the biggest English talent in years who’s not far from already being world class and who at 20 years old could provide us with over a decade of his quality so if it’s just Sancho or fill the squad with squad players for depth then I pick Sancho every time.
Then move on sellable or unwanted players like Romero if Henderson is coming back, Dalot, Bailly, Jones, Rojo and Pereira which could bring in £40-£45 million. We’ve saved a hell of a lot of money over the last year in wages moving Sanchez, Lukaku, Young, Fellaini, Herrera, Valencia and Darmian all on and only added Fernandes, Maguire, AWB and James in that same time.
A lot of places in the squad are going to be filled bringing players through from the under 23’s like Laird, Mengi, Garner, Levitt and Mejbri much like Tuanzebe, Williams, McTominay, Rashford and Greenwood before them.
It’s quality that’s needed rather than quantity which is how we’ve ended up where we have as we had a bloated squad of squad players rather than standout quality, Sancho is a game winner and could often be the difference between 3 points and a point in the league or winning a cup.
I like Brooks and he looks a decent player but he much like Douglas Costa, Chiesa and Coman are squad players that won’t elevate us nor build on this season and we’re in the Champions League next season not Europa.
Yes we also need a defensive midfielder, a centre back if Tuanzebe can’t stay fit, a left footed left back alternative to Shaw and cover for Fernandes BUT we’ve got a clear shot at the biggest English talent in years who’s not far from already being world class and who at 20 years old could provide us with over a decade of his quality so if it’s just Sancho or fill the squad with squad players for depth then I pick Sancho every time.
I'm a bit torn on this as I think we should be buying smarter and not setting transfer records. I'm certain that Sancho would light up Old Trafford but we need a squad overhaul which is going to take a long time to address if we focus on one main signing this summer. Having said that, I'd be worried about Sancho going to the competition next year, so I'd rather snap him up now rather than miss out.
Woah, not bad. I found one Lingard fan. Finally
P.S. Personally, I don't rate him at all, but appreciate your stance
As I said in Sancho-thread. I don't think he is the answer and I would not splash 100m on a player. He might be very good player. It is not about his ability. It is about getting most for the team. So to make it short. Better with 3 or 4 good squad players instead of one player.
We need a star in attack, I'd go for Sancho. We have very good front three, but they will be inconsistent and in need to rotate.
I think we can live with current midfield options, defense looks sound to me as well.
Star -- higher chance of success, small chance of failure. More reliable.
Squad players -- success rate depends on the players. Unreliable, higher chances of failure.
Squad players -- success rate depends on the players. Unreliable, higher chances of failure.
Yeah honestly believe that Sancho wins us that semi final on Sunday, so should go and get him now then focus on what AM & CB we can bring in after selling some players afterwards
Sancho and cement top 4. Then next summer go for CDM and CB or whoever.
Not a big fan, but I think he can do more than he has shown the last two seasons.Woah, not bad. I found one Lingard fan. Finally
P.S. Personally, I don't rate him at all, but appreciate your stance
I think he will stay, but not play much though.
Bang on
Sancho. Quality over quantity. We've gone the quantity route over the past few years and it's largely been a disaster.
Yeah time to go down the quality route, should try for Upamecano as well with money we can make from player sales
Sancho. It's a long shot to win next season regardless, so to me it's better to make the best decision for what our final product (our best chance at winning) will look like in 2-3 years. You can acquire depth whichever summer you want because by definition they're depth and you can find replacements any summer.
I'd sign Sancho, bring back Smalling for competition/depth (I know it won't happen but I'd do it,) try to generate some addition funds through the selling of Lingard, Pereira and co, and see if it were possible to sign another option in midfield. I'd also love to strengthen our fullback options, but that might have to wait.
Sensible approach, do you think Smalling has the recovery pace to bail out Maguire when required, so who would you go as an additional option in the midfield then just out of interest?
Yeah this post sums it up perfectly
This first XI is not far off City / Liverpool.
DDG / Henderson
AWB - Lindelof - Maguire - Shaw
Matic - Pogba
Sancho - Bruno - Rashford
Martial
Just by adding one superstar (Sancho) it makes the back up much better. At the moment, it would be Greenwood dropping out, but it could be any of them. But, by having someone like Greenwood coming on, it’s not as catastrophic if one of the front 3 is having an off day as there is genuine quality to bring on.
Reserve:
The other ‘keeper, Bailly, Williams, Fred, McTominay, Lingard, Greenwood, Oghalo.
Yeah, there’s still room for improvement. I’m also a bit concerned that there’s only room for one of Bruno or Pogba, which is a shame as they are probably our 2 most talented players.
Aside from Sancho (although not convinced we will get him) I’d like to see some defensive upgrade (centre back to replace Lindelof) and probably another attacker who can play in at least 2 of the forward positions.
Any player not mentioned can be moved on.
That includes: Romero, Dalot, Jones, Smalling, Rojo, Pereira, James and Mata.
DDG / Henderson
AWB - Lindelof - Maguire - Shaw
Matic - Pogba
Sancho - Bruno - Rashford
Martial
Just by adding one superstar (Sancho) it makes the back up much better. At the moment, it would be Greenwood dropping out, but it could be any of them. But, by having someone like Greenwood coming on, it’s not as catastrophic if one of the front 3 is having an off day as there is genuine quality to bring on.
Reserve:
The other ‘keeper, Bailly, Williams, Fred, McTominay, Lingard, Greenwood, Oghalo.
Yeah, there’s still room for improvement. I’m also a bit concerned that there’s only room for one of Bruno or Pogba, which is a shame as they are probably our 2 most talented players.
Aside from Sancho (although not convinced we will get him) I’d like to see some defensive upgrade (centre back to replace Lindelof) and probably another attacker who can play in at least 2 of the forward positions.
Any player not mentioned can be moved on.
That includes: Romero, Dalot, Jones, Smalling, Rojo, Pereira, James and Mata.
No argument, you sign the star. I would take Sancho over Brooks, Grealish and another 30m CB who is just average.