Manchester United ready to back José Mourinho with £100m-plus in January

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Wasnt Alderweireld's 25m clause triggered in January? If so we can get a right winger for 75 mil maybe.... We'll still need a new striker and a rb to compete imo.
No, that clause won't be an option until the end of the season. Basically his current deal runs out at the end of the season, but Spurs have a 1 year option which they will of course activate. However, once they activate that option the 25m clause kicks in so he will then be available for that price and there's nothing Spurs can do about it (unless he actually signs a new contract of course).
 
Alderwiereld & Zaha please Jose... Be a good gift for our next manager in the next season.
 
I recall the reports to which you are referring, but I found them extremely far-fetched/hard to believe. Ed is merely the CEO, his chief responsibilities are that of the hiring and firing of staff, negotiating current player contracts and persuing potential transfer targets that his manager has requested. He has every right to veto a target if he deems him too expensive, that's his judgement call to make, but to suggest he is pulling the plug on targets he thinks are too old and/or not good enough (I have seen reports suggesting this) is giving him too much credit.
It's largely the same thing. If he could have got the likes of Willian for fairly cheap he probably would have gone for it, but the fact that he is that age and that expensive meant Woodward said no. Same with Alderweireld where he almost certainly would have signed him for a reasonable fee, but he didn't want to pay an extra 50m just to get him one year earlier. Spurs were holding out for something like 75m at the beginning of this season, but he'll be available for 25m at the end of the season.

Woodward is almost certainly not deciding who to sign or who not to sign. He is the one deciding how much we are willing to pay for them though, and last season obviously none of the other clubs would sell for the prices that Woodward decided the players were worth. The debatable thing is whether Woodward was in the right to do that because Mourinho was going after targets that were impossible without massively overpaying.
 
Jose wont be spending the 100m, the club will. Jose knows he is just a coach now. He wanted to get rid of martial and shaw, the club offered them a contract and rightly so...if we spend it will be a club decisions not jose.
 
I agree. I'm just saying this article doesn't imply we will splash the cash in Jan because the proper transfers aren't going to be available.


I don't think this suggests he will be backed. It was reported by the times that he had 4 players he wanted to fix the squad for the summer and be backed. He wasn't.

To me it suggests that there's been an acceptance that the defense needs sorting out.

With regards to posters who say Jose has been a disaster in the market, I'd point out that Woodward does the negotiating not the "head coach". Mourinho may have identified the wrong players at times but he's not gone and overspent for them and given them ridiculous wages. That is a United tradition.
 
To me it suggests that there's been an acceptance that the defense needs sorting out.

With regards to posters who say Jose has been a disaster in the market, I'd point out that Woodward does the negotiating not the "head coach". Mourinho may have identified the wrong players at times but he's not gone and overspent for them and given them ridiculous wages. That is a United tradition.

The posters that just lazily say "oh mourinho bought them so he's had his chance" clearly don't get the full workings of the transfers. It's a combination of scout reports and assessments by the manager. He's not solely responsible for any transfer failures and his managerial history shows he knows how to make a fecking mean defence.

Even if he did solely feck up on 2 defenders I'd still trust him with 100m to fix the defence. Because the errors don't suddenly undo all the great defences he's organised in the past.
 
Board are panicking because Top 4 is in jeopardy.

The 2nd place finish deceived them. They're not interested in the title. Top 4 and CL fooball is where the money is at. That is most important to them.

I think Spurs and Arsenal are there for the taking. If we get a bit of our sht together, we should finish ahead of them two in my opinion. We go on a half decent run, we'll be above them in no time. After the next International break we have a good set of fixtures until New Year.
 
The posters that just lazily say "oh mourinho bought them so he's had his chance" clearly don't get the full workings of the transfers. It's a combination of scout reports and assessments by the manager. He's not solely responsible for any transfer failures and his managerial history shows he knows how to make a fecking mean defence.

Even if he did solely feck up on 2 defenders I'd still trust him with 100m to fix the defence. Because the errors don't suddenly undo all the great defences he's organised in the past.

Completely. I don't quite understand who people think is more qualified at the club to make those calls. We can hire some messiah DoF, that'd be great, though I'm not expecting any significant power to be invested in that role (certainly not making calls above EW).

Been thinking that if the club sets parameters, especially with regards to age, Mourinho can identify players within those, but maybe Bailly and Lindelof are exactly those type of signings.

I hope they just allow him to sign whichever centre back he wants so that we have a manager who trusts in his backline and is therefor more risky going forward.
 
No that is not what I suggested at all and that would have been clear by reading what I said. Woodward has shown many times that the financial aspects of transfers are very important to him, which will influence his decision making when going after targets.

If reports are to be believed (I know most reports are bollocks) then Woodward vetoed Mourinho's transfer targets in Alderweireld and Willian due to their cost/age. He is an active participant in our team building if that is the case. I do not want him to have a say on specific targets like that because that is not his expertise, I would like him to simply give a rough budget to a director of football. The director of football would then work with the coach on getting players.

It may not be his expertise (this is repeated ad nauseum) but there’s somebody within the club - and it clearly isn’t Mourinho - who refused to give up on the likes of Shaw and Martial and sell them on this summer. Both of whom are young, talented and important to the long term future of the club. One of which has been tied down to a new contract. For a club that gets canned for not thinking long term, there’s a lot of long term thinking going on in that regard.

Any Director of Football worth his salt would have made the same decisions as the board this summer.

They wouldn’t have floated a crock like Boateng for £40 million. They wouldn’t have entertained the likes of Maguire for £75 million. Or Mina for £30 million plus. They wouldn’t have engaged with the idea of selling Martial to fund Willian. The more I hear about a Director of Football the more I hope he is as a savvy as those sat on the board.
 
Completely. I don't quite understand who people think is more qualified at the club to make those calls. We can hire some messiah DoF, that'd be great, though I'm not expecting any significant power to be invested in that role (certainly not making calls above EW).

Been thinking that if the club sets parameters, especially with regards to age, Mourinho can identify players within those, but maybe Bailly and Lindelof are exactly those type of signings.

I hope they just allow him to sign whichever centre back he wants so that we have a manager who trusts in his backline and is therefor more risky going forward.

We have been making the right ‘kind’ of signings for a long time now. As you point out, Bailly and Lindelof are the sort of signings that fall under the bracket of ‘young, hungry and talented’. The sort of players bought by our rivals for reasonable fees that many of our idiotic supporters cry about when they do well elsewhere.

Why didn’t we buy that guy for £25 million before it cost us £70 million. Boo hoo. Harry Maguire springs to mind.

Well, we’re trying to do that. Look at Dalot. Even Fred, albeit expensive. Pogba was in that age bracket, too. As was Lukaku. As were the likes of Herrera, Martial and Shaw before him. A smattering of quality experience that, in theory, can come in and do a job straight away (see Zlatan, Sanchez and Matic) has been sanctioned where appropriate. And usually, few have complained about their impending arrivals.

My overarching point is that the transfer market and our approach to it is inflated and exaggerated beyond all reality. An excuse for rank coaching and management delivered by three inherently pragmatic (or negative) coaches in succession. When we hire a manger who is right for the club, the sense with which we have approached the transfer market will finally be given its due credit.
 
While Mourinho still has to go, I have no problem with the club spending the money in January, once it’s on the right profile of player. Ones that will actually still be of use to the next manager, not above average 29 year olds.

If for example the club chose to sign Lozano for ~60 million, that would be far more sensible and welcome than Willian for the same price.
 
Whoever and if the club decides to spend money on January it will be for the CURRENT manager, stop with the nonsense that Woodward is already making plans for the next manager by purchasing players in fcking January, if big money is spent in January that means Jose stays.
 
Name 2-3 top level strikers and CBs that you think will fit in this fee.
Toby and Tah.

Icardi, Immobile, perhaps take a punt Piatek or Werner. Or we could sign a player like Lozano for RW, and then move Martial, Sanchez or Rashford up top and adopt a more fluid approach.
 
Toby and Tah.

Icardi, Immobile, perhaps take a punt Piatek or Werner.

Werner certainly wouldn't be dizzy at OT.

We have been making the right ‘kind’ of signings for a long time now. As you point out, Bailly and Lindelof are the sort of signings that fall under the bracket of ‘young, hungry and talented’. The sort of players bought by our rivals for reasonable fees that many of our idiotic supporters cry about when they do well elsewhere.

Why didn’t we buy that guy for £25 million before it cost us £70 million. Boo hoo. Harry Maguire springs to mind.

Well, we’re trying to do that. Look at Dalot. Even Fred, albeit expensive. Pogba was in that age bracket, too. As was Lukaku. As were the likes of Herrera, Martial and Shaw before him. A smattering of quality experience that, in theory, can come in and do a job straight away (see Zlatan, Sanchez and Matic) has been sanctioned where appropriate. And usually, few have complained about their impending arrivals.

My overarching point is that the transfer market and our approach to it is inflated and exaggerated beyond all reality. An excuse for rank coaching and management delivered by three inherently pragmatic (or negative) coaches in succession. When we hire a manger who is right for the club, the sense with which we have approached the transfer market will finally be given its due credit.

I think those type of signings require a setup where there are already leaders, experienced players who are super professional. We had a great example in Zlatan but since then there really is no one. For two young defenders who come into a club in transition with expectations that are way above what the playing squad can deliver, you need some players who stabilise the team. I totally understand why Jose wants a leader centre back. We've always had one (or two) when we've been good.
 
Seems like exactly the same thing that was mentioned then and every season. The money is there if the right signing its available.
True. This narrative is exhausting and quite frankly bordering on stupid.
It is not "spending" to invest 100m on a Varane or a Skriniar. It is an investment, not a cost. We will recieve an asset that will most likely not depreciate in value. The "asset" value might even increase if the player in question performs. Does anyone really see the 90m we spent on Pogba as a cost? He is worth twice that today,.
In todays transfer market the only significant cost really is to spend money on an older player who will not have value when his contract expires. Aldeweireld or Willian for example. Then United would have to write off their value over the term of their contract.
The cost we should be discussing is our total wage bill. Which is already the largest or the second largest in the PL depending on what sources one refers to.
It has never been a question of money for transfers being available.
I am sorry, but it really irritates me when people refer to transfer fees as expenditure. Its not with the caveat of it being spent on an older player.
And I am not referring to your post meaning this, just trying to develop on why you are completely right.
 
Toby and Tah.

Icardi, Immobile, perhaps take a punt Piatek or Werner. Or we could sign a player like Lozano for RW, and then move Martial, Sanchez or Rashford up top and adopt a more fluid approach.
Toby in January for £50m might be possible. Didn't Spurs want £75m or Martial for him in the summer? For a player that will be available for £25m next summer...

Tah, sure. He'd be another punt right now though, not much different than Bailly or Lindeloff

Icardi? He had a buyout clause set at €110m. Not anymore, and should he want to leave Inter will be looking at €120m+ for a starter. Immobile is good but has zero ability to adapt outside Italy. Piatek is a punt. Werner will be available next summer though, but he'd also be a punt right now, and a pretty expensive one at that
 
Toby in January for £50m might be possible. Didn't Spurs want £75m or Martial for him in the summer? For a player that will be available for £25m next summer...

Tah, sure. He'd be another punt right now though, not much different than Bailly or Lindeloff

Icardi? He had a buyout clause set at €110m. Not anymore, and should he want to leave Inter will be looking at €120m+ for a starter. Immobile is good but has zero ability to adapt outside Italy. Piatek is a punt. Werner will be available next summer though, but he'd also be a punt right now, and a pretty expensive one at that
From what I've seen of Tah, and I won't pretend to watch him on a weekly basis, he seems like a terrific player. Think he'd be an upgrade.

Icardi might be a bit of a stretch, but it won't be outside the realms of possiblity.

Don't think we can say that about Immobile. Yeah he wasn't great at Dortmund, and we didn't see enough of him at Sevilla to make a proper assessment, but he's playing better than he ever has at Lazio. No reason why he couldn't continue that form. I reckon we would get Werner for £70mil.
 
I wouldn't place any bets on significant investment in January...

"Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho fuming with Ed Woodward after CEO cancels January transfer meeting at last minute."

"The latest developments have done nothing to help the already strained relationship between Mourinho and executive vice-chairman Woodward."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/7614...-fuming-ed-woodward-cancels-transfer-meeting/
 
Toby and Tah.

Icardi, Immobile, perhaps take a punt Piatek or Werner. Or we could sign a player like Lozano for RW, and then move Martial, Sanchez or Rashford up top and adopt a more fluid approach.
Didn't get who is "Tah"

Rashford up top ?
Do you think United can afford to have a player like Rashford another season ?
We are winning feck all with him starting league games. He is just so ordinary.
 
Didn't get who is "Tah"

Rashford up top ?
Do you think United can afford to have a player like Rashford another season ?
We are winning feck all with him starting league games. He is just so ordinary.

Rashford is quality young prospect and has great future ahead of him. And that "Tah" is one of most rated German Centerback, Jonathan Tah from Bayer Leverkusen.
 
True. This narrative is exhausting and quite frankly bordering on stupid.
It is not "spending" to invest 100m on a Varane or a Skriniar. It is an investment, not a cost. We will recieve an asset that will most likely not depreciate in value. The "asset" value might even increase if the player in question performs. Does anyone really see the 90m we spent on Pogba as a cost? He is worth twice that today,.
In todays transfer market the only significant cost really is to spend money on an older player who will not have value when his contract expires. Aldeweireld or Willian for example. Then United would have to write off their value over the term of their contract.
The cost we should be discussing is our total wage bill. Which is already the largest or the second largest in the PL depending on what sources one refers to.
It has never been a question of money for transfers being available.
I am sorry, but it really irritates me when people refer to transfer fees as expenditure. Its not with the caveat of it being spent on an older player.
And I am not referring to your post meaning this, just trying to develop on why you are completely right.
I totally agree with you, what people don’t seem to register is that we United are a buisness. City and PSG don’t have to run like a buisness but they for the most part invest their money wisely whilst having a bigger safety net for the allowance of poor investments.
 
If the club was not run by absolute morons, we'd have a next manager lined up and will be already working on his transfers, ala City before Pep. What if we get more players for Jose who are crap and the next manager comes in and does not rate them? Hopefully this is bollocks
 
Didn't get who is "Tah"

Rashford up top ?
Do you think United can afford to have a player like Rashford another season ?
We are winning feck all with him starting league games. He is just so ordinary.
Jonathan Tah. A highly regarding CB who plays for Leverkusen.

As one possiblity yes. He isn't ordinary. He's a bit off form at the moment, but it'll certainly help him playing as a striker - his natural position. A more fluid front three will also help. We win feck all with DDG in goal, too, so I think that's an unfair criticism. Not going to mention my other suggestions?
 
Jonathan Tah. A highly regarding CB who plays for Leverkusen.

As one possiblity yes. He isn't ordinary. He's a bit off form at the moment, but it'll certainly help him playing as a striker - his natural position. A more fluid front three will also help. We win feck all with DDG in goal, too, so I think that's an unfair criticism. Not going to mention my other suggestions?
Attack and Defense are two things that need to work together.
We have had one of the two best defences for the last 3 seasons. It is our goal scoring and missed opportunities at front that are costing us games, vital points. We can have the top defense in the league in terms of goals conceded in 4th season in a row, yet we aren't winning anything unless there is quality upfront. Which Rashford is surely not.
 
Rashford is quality young prospect and has great future ahead of him. And that "Tah" is one of most rated German Centerback, Jonathan Tah from Bayer Leverkusen.
Bayern Munich bound then.
There is only one way he is going ...
I still can't believe we didn't sign Kroos... and Agruero, and Hazard, and .....
 
If club were going to back him I think they should have done it in the summer and we'd hopefully be in a better situation then we are in now. By not backing him they have given him excuse to moan about not being fully backed.

Personally I don't think the club should not back Jose in January as he could be gone by the summer and the club stuck with player(s) the next manager potentially doesn't want. I think the owners might back him if we end up in the Europa League in January. By then our chances of qualifying via 4th spot could be slimmer than they are now and the owners might try push for winning the Europa League.

I feel if this happens Jose will be happy with another trophy to add to the collection and the owners will be happy to have achieved Champions League qualification. If this happens I think they might keep Jose on another year but then I fear it will be this year over again but worse next year.

Personally I don't want Jose another year and feel he should be gone by the summer with a 'good' Director of Football brought in sooner to assess the situation until the end of the season and see what needs rectifying.
 
Looking forward to Dinosé luring Terry and Drogba out of retirement in January.

£50m of the budget spent on a De Lorean to take him back to 2005 where he belongs.
 
I also don't think money is our problem. Our porblem is players sign, then stagnate.
The good thing is we've largely bought good players in the last two years.
So regardless of who we buy, I hope the next coach fancies.
 
didn't he used to play on the right? I could have sworn i've seen him playing on the right.

To be fair he is quite versatile and could play anywhere across the front line. Maybe even as a central striker as his finishing is good enough. But us signing another player who is better on the left to play on the right side is plain stupid.

Im not sure Zaha has ever played on the right side. Hes another player that has used his skill to cut in onto his right from the left side.
 
didn't he used to play on the right? I could have sworn i've seen him playing on the right.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t he play up front these days for Palace? He left united as a RW, but I think they use him as a forward?
 
Attack and Defense are two things that need to work together.
We have had one of the two best defences for the last 3 seasons. It is our goal scoring and missed opportunities at front that are costing us games, vital points. We can have the top defense in the league in terms of goals conceded in 4th season in a row, yet we aren't winning anything unless there is quality upfront. Which Rashford is surely not.
They are, which is why improving defensive personnel can improve the attack, and vice versa.

While I'm not one to slate the abilities of our defenders, it stands to reason that they can be improved upon. Being able to rely on our defenders to play out, or defend without additional support from midfielders, will ease the defensive burden on our more forward thinking personnel - a few signings might drastically alter our approach.

Ok I get it. You don't rate Rashford. I think you're wrong. But to return to my original point, and my subsequent response, there were several options I provided as a potential solution. Rashford was just one of them.
 
To be fair he is quite versatile and could play anywhere across the front line. Maybe even as a central striker as his finishing is good enough. But us signing another player who is better on the left to play on the right side is plain stupid.

Im not sure Zaha has ever played on the right side. Hes another player that has used his skill to cut in onto his right from the left side.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t he play up front these days for Palace? He left united as a RW, but I think they use him as a forward?

I think he still does play a little on the right, it was a youtube compilation i saw which i just found again, but in that they show him playing across all 3 positions. Maybe he has the freedom to drift at Palace? He has the trickery and directness of Nani, we could do with some of that.
 
I think he still does play a little on the right, it was a youtube compilation i saw which i just found again, but in that they show him playing across all 3 positions. Maybe he has the freedom to drift at Palace? He has the trickery and directness of Nani, we could do with some of that.

Ive just been looking into it. He played quite a few games last season up top in a 2 with Townsend and it is what the palace fans want to see again. He plays off the left mostly but does seem to have the freedom to drift across the front line as you have said, and swap with Townsend. Alot of his goals and assists have been from the left side and i think it would be silly to play him off the right.. especially under Jose!. Something that Zaha is given at palace is the freedom to roam. He is not disciplined enough to play the way we do.
 
The way it's worded about the right players already gives the board an out for when no one is bought in January. It's very difficult to get top quality players in the winter window anyway, I can't see us getting anything done.

They did. He wasnt fired

I like it. :lol:

It may not be his expertise (this is repeated ad nauseum) but there’s somebody within the club - and it clearly isn’t Mourinho - who refused to give up on the likes of Shaw and Martial and sell them on this summer. Both of whom are young, talented and important to the long term future of the club. One of which has been tied down to a new contract. For a club that gets canned for not thinking long term, there’s a lot of long term thinking going on in that regard.

Any Director of Football worth his salt would have made the same decisions as the board this summer.

They wouldn’t have floated a crock like Boateng for £40 million. They wouldn’t have entertained the likes of Maguire for £75 million. Or Mina for £30 million plus. They wouldn’t have engaged with the idea of selling Martial to fund Willian. The more I hear about a Director of Football the more I hope he is as a savvy as those sat on the board.

Agreed, crapping on Woodward and the board is a sport on the Caf, but had we left things to the manager we'd have lost Shaw, bought Boateng and gotten rid of Martial for one of Mourinho's two favoured 30 year old wingers, at least someone is looking longer term at the squad.
 
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