It's not the end of the world if we signed nobody else this summer

[pocco]

I know the problems we have within the team, but my OP was more from a standpoint of, even if we are (expectedly) shocking in midfield, we aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and eventually it will be addressed. If we keep Pogba, do we consider that a 'signing' as such? I think people are going to be torn on that one. I am not denying we NEED better players, but its not going to be a disaster, unless you are the sort of fan to panic and look at things in the present without the foresight to believe its a process, and cannot be just fixed in a window.

I still think we will add one or two more by the way, but I am prepared for us not to.

I understand what you're saying and without putting a timeframe on it you'll be correct. But if you look at the trajectory of us vs the competition, the gap is getting extremely wide now. We could easily be looking at 10 years before we compete if we continue along this path.

If you're happy to potentially wait that long and call it a process then fair enough. None of us have a choice because we can't influence a thing at the club, but some (including me) can't just accept this ineptitude without saying something. I'll still be there supporting every week, but I'm not going to pretend everything is going to plan when it clearly isn't.

 

[Morpheus 7]

It is sad, but in a way its a necessary evil. Ole needs to not be under immense pressure, its not worked for our last 3 managers. I feel thats what the club needs, us all to get on board with the rebuild without the expectation of instant success.

Rebuild means change, two first team players and a young talent isn't that. I'm not buying this we need to wait years. True rebuild means change, transition through a series of changes in and out, United haven't done that. We should be fighting to compete for the league, not this can we get 4th bullshit. We take in enough revenue and need to invest properly in to this team. I'm happy of what we are bringing in but it's not near enough. The fans/manager/media/rivals all know it. We'll wait to Thursday but the lack of ambition and planning is poor. Much was promised and hasn't been delivered this summer, fans want us to be truly competitive.

 

[Jamie Shawcross]

I get your point and if this was early July we'd be in a great position to go after a player that wants to be here, that's fair enough.

The problem isn't Dybala or the fact we have pulled out of the deal, the problem is why the feck we are 4 days out from the window closing and we don't have a player in that position yet? We just wasted a week negotiating with Dybala and have left ourselves no time to get another player in, we shouldn't even be in this position.

Do you believe that we only work on one deal at a time? do you believe Ed and Ole have been working full time on Dybala (which wasn't our initial target anyway)? If you believe that, then maybe you are right. I believe for all our shortcomings, the board know better than to focus on just one target for that long knowing it might not come to fruition.

Watch, we will strengthen the midfield before the window shuts. Watch, and it will be a deal thats either been worked on for a while, or something we didn't expect because we have kept our cards close to our chest.

If we don't, hey ho lets have a shit season and hate it, but try to remain positive and constructive for the long term rebuild.

 

[Rafaeldagold]

As it stands Midfield has got worse since last season with Herrera going & we have a striker who wants out with no replacement & a novice manager.

Things aren’t looking the best

 

[Jamie Shawcross]

Rebuild means change, two first team players and a young talent isn't that. I'm not buying this we need to wait years. True rebuild means change, transition through a series of changes in and out, United haven't done that. We should be fighting to compete for the league, not this can we get 4th bullshit. We take in enough revenue and need to invest properly in to this team. I'm happy of what we are bringing in but it's not near enough. The fans/manager/media/rivals all know it. We'll wait to Thursday but the lack of ambition and planning is poor. Much was promised and hasn't been delivered this summer, fans want us to be truly competitive.

Yeah I get your points, but the damage to our title challenge status has been done over the last 6 years with really fecking bad signings and signings for the wrong reasons. We can't turn back time, its going to take time to undo all that damage and offload overpaid dead wood. Thats not on Solskjaer.

 

[redshaw]

Midfield is a worry

Defence is pretty good, the attack yes it lacks creativity but we scored about the same as Spurs and more than Chelsea despite Lukaku not really firing and we have some youngsters who are ready to chip in.

We need help in midfield

 

[Pennywise]

That's when i'll be done, if they sack Solksjaer any time soon. That's when my club has truly fallen from grace. I just hope the fans don't turn on him. They wouldn't.....would they?

I think the fans will turn on the club top brass e.g. Ed and the glazers next tbh. As you say let's see where we are once the window shuts

 

[Jamie Shawcross]

I think the fans will turn on the club top brass e.g. Ed and the glazers next tbh. As you say let's see where we are once the window shuts

The day them feckers are out of this club, the better. What concerns me more than lack of midfield signings, is the apparent change of heart on this appointment of a DoF. what happened there?

 

[Stubble]

Feels like the priority was sorting the defence this window and club will see how the MF situation pans out next season.
Maybe was tough with not knowing if Pogba will be here after this season so maybe a MF rebuild planned for next window with the Pogba cash (or not) after seeing if anyone steps up this year. Bruno or SMS (or both) were prob the option if Pogba left and we may sign either/both next year if still available. I think Longstaff was wanted as a 'budget' purchase but Newcastle priced us out. If Lukaku is still sold with no Dybala incoming the £100 million spend rumour was correct.
Could cost us this season though..

 

[Jamie Shawcross]

Feels like the priority was sorting the defence this window and club will see how the MF situation pans out next season.
Maybe was tough with not knowing if Pogba will be here after this season so maybe a MF rebuild planned for next window with the Pogba cash (or not) after seeing if anyone steps up this year. Bruno or SMS (or both) were prob the option if Pogba left and we may sign either/both next year if still available. I think Longstaff was wanted as a 'budget' purchase but Newcastle priced us out. If Lukaku is still sold with no Dybala incoming the £100 million spend rumour was correct.
Could cost us this season though..

Depends what we consider "cost us this season" would be. We aren't pulling up trees no matter what we do in the next 4 days. I want to see positive signs, an apparent shift in the direction of the club. Small steps for the long term project

 

[Mark Pawelek]

I get your point, but strengthening the team shouldn't only be a bonus, it's a necessity.

If Ole thinks he can get anywhere with that shambles of a midfield he's delusional.

If you think Ole can demand this or that new player you are delusional.

 

[Bubz27]

I get that concern, and I somewhat share it, but then I remember that a transfer of a player isn't like football manager. Ed and Ole won't be sat there now going through a catalogue going "what about him? him?". Anyone we do sign in the next 4 days will have been an ongoing negotiation for a while. We aren't the type of club to just take a punt on someone last minute, or at least the way we have behaved with Dybala suggests that. We turned down Dybala (one of the best strikers in europe because he didn't fit in with the plan). I believe in it.

Yeah, and that's good. So why haven't we addressed the issues in our squad in the previous 10 weeks?

We're an appallingly run football club.

And people think the fact we've outspent our rivals is a defence of the board? It's a damning indictment! Spent so much, so poorly and so so far behind.

We talk about attracting player X and Y (Sancho) etc when we get CL football next year. Not happening. Top 3 places and then it's a 3 way fight. And any time this team has to fight for anything, it fails.

And we turned down Dybala because he didn't want to come. Or he only truly wanted to come for money.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

It's not the end of the world, it's the end of Manchester United.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

I get that concern, and I somewhat share it, but then I remember that a transfer of a player isn't like football manager. Ed and Ole won't be sat there now going through a catalogue going "what about him? him?". Anyone we do sign in the next 4 days will have been an ongoing negotiation for a while. We aren't the type of club to just take a punt on someone last minute, or at least the way we have behaved with Dybala suggests that. We turned down Dybala (one of the best strikers in europe because he didn't fit in with the plan). I believe in it.

Seriously?We turned him down? ok.

 

[Jamie Shawcross]

Seriously?We turned him down? ok.

Apparently so. He accepted the transfer but his wage demands and perceived actual desire to play for us wasn't right. Could be a pack of lies

 

[UnofficialDevil]

Apparently so. He accepted the transfer but his wage demands and perceived actual desire to play for us wasn't right. Could be a pack of lies

There you go. We didnt turn him down. He didnt want to sign for us. An to be honest I cant blame him. We arent what we used to be.

 

[Infra-red]

It's not the end of the world if we finish outside the top four again or become a perennial mid-table side. The world will keep spinning, we'll all be fine, it's only football. Seems a bit of a shame, though.

 

[Bojan11]

Another season like last season and how many top players would want to play for us. Dybala wasn’t keen on us. I’m sure if City were interested he would have been more keen.

People keep thinking Sancho next season is a formality or something next year. He won’t want to join us if we have another season like last year. We improved the defence. But midfield and attack are weak.

 

[Valar Morghulis]

@Jamie Shawcross So far you've posted 20 times in this thread and your posts are getting very irritating. You'd swear Joel Glazer has a gun to your temple. I don't mean to offend but I truly think this is a valid question at this point, are you on drugs or at the very least pissed? Your naive optimism in the midst of this absolute abomination of a transfer window is puzzling to the extreme.

You might be happy to wait 10 years for us to put up a title challenge but this fecking club is not about crossing our fingers and hoping things work out eventually. This is a Manchester United forum not Yeovil Town. This club is about courage, excellence and a never say die spirit. No way can we go into the new season with this squad and just patiently sit and bide our time until the Glazers feck off, whilst Liverpool and City laugh away at us. The least we as fans can do is have enough pride in what this club stands for to at least kick up a fecking stink about how badly we are being ran and make it clear that this is simply not acceptable, not meagerly shrug our shoulders and say "ah well it's just a game." You grew up with Sir Alex's football and witnessing his winning mentality just as I did, Manchester United is about being bold and always seeking to be the best. We're not aspiring to be the best right now, we're a glorified fecking Arsenal.

We are one of the biggest clubs in the world, a truly historic and well respected club and we are most likely going to be regularly starting dross like Lingard, Matic and Mata next season. And what of Real Madrid, what have they done? Gone and absolutely annihalated the transfer window adding multiple top class signings to their already much, much stronger squad than we have at our disposal. That's what a big club does.

We better go out and pull some quality signings out of our ass in the next 4 days or next season might very well be our biggest trainwreck season since the great man retired. Looking to play a high pressing game with some absolute slow old shits in our squad and not enough proven depth in our midfield and forward line to sustain any sort of challenge on 4 fronts, it just all sounds like a recipe for disater right now. Come after Christmas we might be well and truly fecked and Ole most likely won't be around to see the season through, that's how things go here nowadays don't be fooled by all this PR rebuild bullshit, Ole will be turfed out just like the rest.

Some of you might have lowered your expectations just like the Glazers want but I sure as hell haven't. The next 4 days are well and truly crucial to Ole's tenure IMO, the board better deliver for him or this will be yet another season of pure mediocrity.

I am pissed!

 

[Eli Zee]

Not the end of the world. We just definitely won't win anything this season. I mean if you're happy to watch Liverpool and City sweep up the silverware while we fight for top 4, then sure, it's not all that bad.

We won’t win anything... big deal.

Other teams in the league, and other sports (NBA, NFL) have teams that don’t win trophies for years, or ever. They all still have their die hard supporters.

We have been spoiled for like 23 of the last 30 years... no one wins for ever. I think if you focus on the journey, rather than when we will win another trophy, you will find it enjoyable to see us grow into a powerhouse again (hopefully that’s what happens).

 

[Devil may care]

It's not the end of the world but if we don't get in a forward and a CM in the next 4 days it'll be the end of a chance of getting top 4, and if he doesn't get top 4 Ole will be sacked.

 

[Foxbatt]

It is a clusterfeck as usual by woodward. There does not seem to have any options if Plan A does not work. We should have got two midfield players instead of going after Dybala. Even now A Mario Mandzukic would be better option than Lukaku.But we desperately need two quality midfield players. Surely there must be better DM than Matic playing in any country?

 

[Irwin99]

Defence has taken huge strides forward but I don't think there's enough attacking quality in this team or creativity without Pogba (if he's injured/off form). To lose two midfielders and probably a striker and not replace them would be really negligent. I wonder if we'll go through long periods of not being able to break teams down again and we'll be expecting the youngsters to work miracles.

I'm still really confident we'll get two more players though....fairly confident

 

[Andersonson]

We lost Herrera and he hasn't been replaced. Lukaku might go and we haven't got a replacement lined up. Even if the new guys have great seasons we'll still be in a tussle for fourth. I don't think anyone has said that Ole should have his new squad sorted in one transfer window, but if this is it then it's another season where our biggest weaknesses haven't been addressed.

Probably got all them season tickets and shirts sold with the "5 or 6 players" bullshit though.

But this is a positive thread and I don't want to derail it so I'll respectfully feck off.

Lukaku isnt sold yet. And Ole has said he wants to give Greenwood a chance. And we're looking into Mandzukic. So he will be replaced no matter what.

If players like Dybala wants Sanchez money to be here, the club ( Ole ) ia doing the right thing in investing in players who want to build us up again.

Regarding Herrera we have Scott coming in. He is a box-to-box player like Herrera, not a DM. We could do with more numbers in midfield, im sure it will come. This window or the next.

Investing in names we've tried. Now lets invest in our youth and players wanting to die for us.

Cheer up

 

[ForestRGoinUp]

Paid a world record fee for a CB no one would have as top 10 in the position. And was told no thanks by Dybala with a couple days to go.

The midfield now looks as bad as the defense did last year. And the attack is certainly not among the top 4 attacks in the league. Oh and this manager didn’t have an idea of how to motivate his players in the last two months of the season.

OP is pie in the sky type stuff.

 

[Bastian]

It's all well and good to be positive. And I am positive about of defense, the youngsters we'll hopefully see properly promoted and the focus on tenacity and dynamism. But there's not getting away from the fact that our midfield is not up to scratch and we'll struggle if we don't address that. It will spell out that our ambition is no higher than battling for the top 4, which will be another dogfight.

 

[Devil may care]

Lukaku isnt sold yet. And Ole has said he wants to give Greenwood a chance. And we're looking into Mandzukic. So he will be replaced no matter what.

If players like Dybala wants Sanchez money to be here, the club ( Ole ) ia doing the right thing in investing in players who want to build us up again.

Regarding Herrera we have Scott coming in. He is a box-to-box player like Herrera, not a DM. We could do with more numbers in midfield, im sure it will come. This window or the next.

Investing in names we've tried. Now lets invest in our youth and players wanting to die for us.

Cheer up

The bolded stuff really needs to stop, it's so corny, do you think City's players love the club and would die for it? No, they went there for huge money and because it's clearly very well ran and they'll be managed by the best coach in the world. Players that go to Real, Bayern and Barca wouldn't die for the badge either, they go there because it's almost guarenteed success and lots of money as you're playing in teams that are filled with the best players in the world.

If you want quality and want to win you pay for the services of the best and you have someone overseeing football operations that actually knows what they are doing.

 

[buckooo1978]

big big gamble if we dont bring anyone else in

we've a squad last year who didnt deliver and theres nothing to suggest we are going to see the necessary improvement in players like Shaw, Sanchez, Jones, Smalling, Fred, Rashford, Lingard, Martial etc....

we are gambling on Chong, Gomes and Greenwood stepping up after decent pre-season performances which count for nothing next weekend - how fair is it to put that kind of pressure on those kids- they should be getting the odd game here or there but we probably need Greenwood to contribute maybe scoring 10-15 goals if we are to have a productive season

in 12 months time we will be in even deeper shit especially if we dont qualify for the CL that looks doubtful to me - Matic will need replaced and we will probably have to sell Pogba with his contract situation

our midfield could be decimated with Pereira, Fred and McTominay left, none of whom are the required quality for a top United team.

potentially we could need to sign 6/7 players next year and we are back to square one

 

[Gazza]

With the squad as is we are looking at a miracle upturn in form from a number of players and the fulfillment of potential in a couple. Stars would have to align for us miraculously if we are to get a top four spot. Stating the obvious but no hiding from it.

 

[Wolff]

I get your point and if this was early July we'd be in a great position to go after a player that wants to be here, that's fair enough.

The problem isn't Dybala or the fact we have pulled out of the deal, the problem is why the feck we are 4 days out from the window closing and we don't have a player in that position yet? We just wasted a week negotiating with Dybala and have left ourselves no time to get another player in, we shouldn't even be in this position, it should have been sorted weeks ago.

Do you really think this is how it works? One deal at the time type of thing? Well it doesn't.
The club signed Maguire at the same time, and I’m sure they where talking to several others. It’s called initial talks, and the club have many people who can do so. You have seen the market this summer, and it’s not just like going to tesco. I think the club has done right making a strategy of signings (hungry players who want to play for the club) How much money spent now? 155M? And I’m sure the people who was complaining about signings like Sanchez etc are the same complaining now. Like everything in life, things take time. Like building a team.

 

[Hawks2008]

City add Rodri and Cancelo to an already strong team while we dither and flounder in the market when we needed a big overhaul. Don't have much hope for more incomings before the 8th.

 

[iluvoursolskjær]

Yes it would

 

[Balotelli's Bib]

You have to sign more players. For one you need a right winger and a quality midfielder.

I will admit I'm incredibly surprised you are yet to sign a big name player. I rate maguire but he still has improvement left in him, and I fear for the amount of pressure the 80 mil pricetag will inevitably bring.

You're Man United ffs.

PS: Ed is a worm, you need to get rid.

 

[bondsname]

We just have to face the fact that we are not an attractive club right now and it's going to be a few hard years till we get back to the top. It's going to be frustrating, people will be calling for Ole's head, but we are heading in the right direction at least for the first time in 6 years.

We've got youngsters coming through, we are only purchasing players who really want to be here to avoid a Di Maria like fiasco, and we had a decent transfer window, and with Maguire and AWB, our defence has potential.

This club is getting it's pride and principles back in place, United has been in an identity crisis for half a decade and we are slowly getting our soul back.

I am willing to be patient for 3 years to see United dominate for 30 years, and that demands investment in youth, and building a team of people who love the club and want to be here. Dybala is quality but doesn't want to play here, and we don't want another sulking player to bring down the mood in the dressing room. That's impressive because if this was 3 years ago, Woodward would of offered €450 000 a week to make him come here, but this time we are saying no because of his lack of interest. Major green flag for me.

So yes, I am satisfied with the transfer window because we bought players who actually want to be here.

 

[WR10]

Any shrivel of success this club is hopeful on has so far been relying on the commercial power of the club stalling until we sort out our football.

This exact mindset of ‘there’s always next transfer window’ will be the end of the club. The stream of commercial deals will dry up once the sentimental value of Manchester United has shrivelled away.

 

[SirAnderson]

100% correct Op, it's not the end of the world. Far from it.
But it's definitely the end of our title challenge before it begins!

 

[Catt]

Young is our captain for this coming season. That alone is quite depressing.

Like Val was? Doubt he will play that much.

 

[red4ever 79]

If Lukaku leaves then we need a striker to replace him.

Other than that we need minimum of 1 CM to replace Herrera/Fellaini. If we do not manage to get those signings done then we are in for a difficult season

 

[Annihilate Now!]

As it stands we're basically relying on players being a lot better (Fred, Matic, Sanchez, etc.) or more consistent (Pretty much everyone else) then they were last year, as well as our youngsters stepping up, and our new signings definitely doing well.

It's a huge gamble.

 

[NJM78]

Its not the end of the world of course as there are many more important things in life than football but with no further signings we will not get top 4 and with that I am in no doubt.

I would be happy with this slow build and limited ambition if I knew we would give our youngsters a run out often but I bet my left nut we rarely see any of them, I do not believe Ole has the guts to play them over more experienced players.

If the board do not get Ole his targets I'm willing to give him my support whatever position we finish but if he keeps playing players who are shit and letting us down week in week out my support will of course start to fade.

I never had ambition for the forthcoming season just as I did not last year, nothing to do with Jose or now Ole, but to do with our players level of ability. This season is no different although not seeing as much of Ashley Young, Jones or Smalling is a massive plus.