Now that's what I call a January window

[Bastian]

Sums up my feeling pretty well. Great post. However we can't do anything currently so let's just hope everything will turn out well.

Cheers, you're definitely in the minority on here

It's not that I'm disappointed in the players acquired. I'm not. I'm happy with Bruno. And I think it's sensible to get a player on loan. Though I would have preferred a striker who offers us tactical flexibility, not just counter attacking suitability. My issue is with the complete lack of preparedness. We had a whole summer of "rebuild" "cultural reset" "this time it's different". We gut the squad. It seems the Maguire deal was dependent upon Lukaku leaving, yet Ole keeps saying he's backed, players want to join, the money is available. But there is no planning.

I guess people are buzzing because signings are always fun.

 

[VeevaVee]

You're right really. It's been confusing and frustrating up til now but we have something interesting to watch out of it and hopefully a position sorted.

 

[el3mel]

Cheers, you're definitely in the minority on here

It's not that I'm disappointed in the players acquired. I'm not. I'm happy with Bruno. And I think it's sensible to get a player on loan. Though I would have preferred a striker who offers us tactical flexibility, not just counter attacking suitability. My issue is with the complete lack of preparedness. We had a whole summer of "rebuild" "cultural reset" "this time it's different". We gut the squad. It seems the Maguire deal was dependent upon Lukaku leaving, yet Ole keeps saying he's backed, players want to join, the money is available. But there is no planning.

I guess people are buzzing because signings are always fun.

Main problem was that we as usual spent long time negotiating with Sporting about decreasing the price tag that we found ourselves panicking at the end without time. I honestly don't get how a big club with multiple scouts fails so hard to work on multiple transfers on same time. Just because Sporting were asking for more money it doesn't mean you should do nothing at all for the entire month bar negotiating with them. Why not work on the striker deal alongside Bruno I don't get it. People always thought such claim was false but this window just proves it by how much we ended panicking without time so had to sign Ighalo. Same situation happened in summer. I can't believe that we can't work on more than one deal at time. Ridiculous.

 

[Withnail]

Chelsea didn't sign anyone right? Pretty good window for us in the end.

And Franks after going on a bit of a weird one about being the under dogs for top 4 because they bought no one.

 

[bond19821982]

Roundup:

So we did a Maguire with Bruno. A player available for less money last summer (as was Maguire when Jose wanted him). We then proceeded to spend the whole window negotiating, only to end up paying the set price at the end of the window. With Maguire, we could have had him bed in much sooner, with Bruno we could have had him playing for all of January.

We tried to tempt Jude Bellingham to join from Birmingham. Rumoured to have offered 30m for the 16 year old. He didn’t fancy it.

We made an offer for Josh King - Bournemouth fighting relegation - how likely was it that they’d want to sell relatively cheap with no time to replace him?

Ole personally went to speak with Haaland, thinking he’d join us. Goes to Dortmund and scores loads of goals. Granted, if rumours of the deal are to be believed, the player is almost being rented from Raiola and his dad. If Ole tried to get around Raiola, that’s a plus.

We were rumoured to have scoped out a loan move for 20 year old Argentine striker Adolfo Gaich, who has a tiny €13.5m release clause.

Vague rumours around Grealish, Maddison, Cavani, Rakitic.

And we saw Rojo and Young leave, despite Ole saying he wanted to retain the players at the club as the squad was so stretched.

It is clear that our transfer “committee” is atrocious. It is also clear that we do not have a long-term approach in place, where we know our targets. A long-term plan includes more then 2-3 players that are unattainable in January because they are playing in the CL. This “long-termism” seems to be a relatively empty buzzword to buy more time for a club that has little ambition, and perhaps, not the money it once did, having squandered hundreds of millions on inflated fees, wages and managerial sackings.

That being said, we needed a striker and got one in. Mainly it’s good so we won’t destroy Martial and Greenwood.

And we needed a midfielder so we won’t play Matic and Fred until they get even too injured for Ole to play them.

I don’t mind us not spending huge sums in January, but I find it unacceptable that a club of this stature doesn’t seem prepared in the slightest.

I’d give this window a 5/10 given our needs, but I was expecting 0/10.

1)Bruno was not coming for 47m in summer.
2) Bellingham was never signing to play for our reserves or u19.
All the rest are plain rumors and if you are going to trust everything that comes out of ITKs during a transfer window, you will be always disappointed.

Our summer was a bad one. January is as good as you can get though.

 

[bazalini]

Big congrats to Ighalo's agent. Must have worked his socks off to get that one through. Must feel like Christmas in his house

 

[Relevated]

Roundup:

So we did a Maguire with Bruno. A player available for less money last summer (as was Maguire when Jose wanted him). We then proceeded to spend the whole window negotiating, only to end up paying the set price at the end of the window. With Maguire, we could have had him bed in much sooner, with Bruno we could have had him playing for all of January.

We tried to tempt Jude Bellingham to join from Birmingham. Rumoured to have offered 30m for the 16 year old. He didn’t fancy it.

We made an offer for Josh King - Bournemouth fighting relegation - how likely was it that they’d want to sell relatively cheap with no time to replace him?

Ole personally went to speak with Haaland, thinking he’d join us. Goes to Dortmund and scores loads of goals. Granted, if rumours of the deal are to be believed, the player is almost being rented from Raiola and his dad. If Ole tried to get around Raiola, that’s a plus.

We were rumoured to have scoped out a loan move for 20 year old Argentine striker Adolfo Gaich, who has a tiny €13.5m release clause.

Vague rumours around Grealish, Maddison, Cavani, Rakitic.

And we saw Rojo and Young leave, despite Ole saying he wanted to retain the players at the club as the squad was so stretched.

It is clear that our transfer “committee” is atrocious. It is also clear that we do not have a long-term approach in place, where we know our targets. A long-term plan includes more then 2-3 players that are unattainable in January because they are playing in the CL. This “long-termism” seems to be a relatively empty buzzword to buy more time for a club that has little ambition, and perhaps, not the money it once did, having squandered hundreds of millions on inflated fees, wages and managerial sackings.

That being said, we needed a striker and got one in. Mainly it’s good so we won’t destroy Martial and Greenwood.

And we needed a midfielder so we won’t play Matic and Fred until they get even too injured for Ole to play them.

I don’t mind us not spending huge sums in January, but I find it unacceptable that a club of this stature doesn’t seem prepared in the slightest.

I’d give this window a 5/10 given our needs, but I was expecting 0/10.

Why are you lying? Bruno was not available for a lower price in the summer. Also, we did end up getting a decent deal on our terms.

 

[Bastian]

Main problem was that we as usual spent long time negotiating with Sporting about decreasing the price tag that we found ourselves panicking at the end without time. I honestly don't get how a big club with multiple scouts fails so hard to work on multiple transfers on same time. Just because Sporting were asking for more money it doesn't mean you should do nothing at all for the entire month bar negotiating with them. Why not work on the striker deal alongside Bruno I don't get it. People always thought such claim was false but this window just proves it by how much we ended panicking without time so had to sign Ighalo. Same situation happened in summer. I can't believe that we can't work on more than one deal at time. Ridiculous.

Yeah. For me, the craziest part about the window was that we hadn't tied something up for the start of it. We desperately needed bodies in asap, but we went through a whole month without and we could have been sitting in a better position had we planned things properly. I'd be surprised if there is consistent work behind the scenes by the so-called transfer committee.

If they weren't idiots, the next couple of months would be used to secure a top class DoF who could get to work right away.

 

[Bastian]

Why are you lying? Bruno was not available for a lower price in the summer. Also, we did end up getting a decent deal on our terms.

Already acknowledged that I was wrong on the summer deal to Spurs. Lying implies intent. Use a dictionary next time.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

Main problem was that we as usual spent long time negotiating with Sporting about decreasing the price tag that we found ourselves panicking at the end without time. I honestly don't get how a big club with multiple scouts fails so hard to work on multiple transfers on same time. Just because Sporting were asking for more money it doesn't mean you should do nothing at all for the entire month bar negotiating with them. Why not work on the striker deal alongside Bruno I don't get it. People always thought such claim was false but this window just proves it by how much we ended panicking without time so had to sign Ighalo. Same situation happened in summer. I can't believe that we can't work on more than one deal at time. Ridiculous.

/This.

It’s simply rinse repeat & fans dawn over the same procrastinated end of window transfer signing every time.

Though if I ask for more from our vast scouting network I’ll be labelled a plastic fan it simply makes no sense that we were scrambling around in the final hours of the window for a striker.

 

[TheReligion]

Be in Wonderland about joining a team who finishes sixth/seventh? Come on

He's a United fan you daft bugger. Plus we are 5th.

 

[Renegade]

Happy with Fernandes, although we’ve wasted half a season where top 4 could have been easily achievable by not signing him In the summer when it was so obvious he was needed.

not really impressed with us spending all month trying to get the deal done.Was it not obvious months ago we needed him? So why couldn’t we negotiate from earlier?
Also are we only able to work on one deal at a time?

we’re scrambling around in January trying to recover a season that was sabotaged by poor planning in the summer.
I still don’t think we have enough goals up top to get us into the top 4 unfortunately. Martial is hanging outside the box, James hasn’t scored since August and Greenwood is still ver my inexperienced.
next summer we need a starter RW or ST 100%. We’ll probably sign a CB or something.

 

[hungrywing]

6.5/10

+1 to the pretty-good-window crowd

Haaland, Bruno and Bellingham would have been 9/10

 

[Eckers99]

I thought Woody hired Neil Ashton to swing his negative PR?

 

[MikeKing]

Main problem was that we as usual spent long time negotiating with Sporting about decreasing the price tag that we found ourselves panicking at the end without time. I honestly don't get how a big club with multiple scouts fails so hard to work on multiple transfers on same time. Just because Sporting were asking for more money it doesn't mean you should do nothing at all for the entire month bar negotiating with them. Why not work on the striker deal alongside Bruno I don't get it. People always thought such claim was false but this window just proves it by how much we ended panicking without time so had to sign Ighalo. Same situation happened in summer. I can't believe that we can't work on more than one deal at time. Ridiculous.

I agree with this. I mean, I'm not confident in making such a statement myself just based on rumours and my own perception of the timeline, but they have been working like this forever so it is hard to believe anything has changed in this regard. Are we really that happy about getting Ighalo and Fernandes? It is good yeah, that we got someone but it is not incredible and what happened is just the barely enough minimum to not piss everyone off, thats it.

 

[Dec9003]

This time maybe a week ago I didn’t think we’d get anyone so I’m really happy.
I think both additions will be good, let’s hope they hit the ground running and score some goals.
If both players slot right in then the season is far from over, still in the FA cup and Europa league, plus top four might be up for grabs if we can sort ourselves out.
I’m optimistic right now, hopefully I still am in a months time.

 

[crossy1686]

I thought Woody hired Neil Ashton to swing his negative PR?

You can't when it's your own fans that write most of it

 

[L1nk]

"Now that's what I call a January window"

Jesus christ how have the standards got this low!?

We should have signed Bruno Fernandes in the summer, everyone knew what he was about and he would have been cheaper. Yes it's a good signing but come on.

Whilst im glad that it's just a loan for Ighalo, really, we basically shit the bed after we couldn't convince Haaland to join us by not bowing down to Raiola's demands so instead we lined the pockets of Ole's best mate to bring in a guy that's hardly even performed in the Chinese league.

It was desperation and leaving shit until the last minute, again.

 

[crossy1686]

"Now that's what I call a January window"

Jesus christ how have the standards got this low!?

We should have signed Bruno Fernandes in the summer, everyone knew what he was about and he would have been cheaper. Yes it's a good signing but come on.

Whilst im glad that it's just a loan for Ighalo, really, we basically shit the bed after we couldn't convince Haaland to join us by not bowing down to Raiola's demands so instead we lined the pockets of Ole's best mate to bring in a guy that's hardly even performed in the Chinese league.

It was desperation and leaving shit until the last minute, again.

All this is fake news

 

[Dec9003]

"Now that's what I call a January window"

Jesus christ how have the standards got this low!?

We should have signed Bruno Fernandes in the summer, everyone knew what he was about and he would have been cheaper. Yes it's a good signing but come on.

Whilst im glad that it's just a loan for Ighalo, really, we basically shit the bed after we couldn't convince Haaland to join us by not bowing down to Raiola's demands so instead we lined the pockets of Ole's best mate to bring in a guy that's hardly even performed in the Chinese league.

It was desperation and leaving shit until the last minute, again.

I’ve got to be honest I’ve never watched a minute of the Chinese league in my life.
According to Ighalos wiki he scored 46 in 72 matches, surely that’s better than hardly performing?

 

[mu4c_20le]

we basically shit the bed after we couldn't convince Haaland to join us by not bowing down to Raiola's demands so instead we lined the pockets of Ole's best mate to bring in a guy that's hardly even performed in the Chinese league.

put the bottle down

 

[L1nk]

All this is fake news

Say it's fake news then provide absolutely zero evidence that its fake news, typical.

Okay seeing as how you want to be a smart ass whilst providing zero evidence.

"Solskjaer was forced to turn to what he knows, since Ighalo played in Norway with Lyn, and his agent – Atta Aneke – has done deals with the manager’s representative Jim Solbakken. "

Atta Aneke, Solbakken and Ole have ties going all the way back to Norway, with his time at Molde and Cardiff as well. He was accused of bringing in a load of players, to both clubs, for his pal and business partner Solbakken, even if they weren't of the required quality.

As for Haaland, I mean it's already been well reported we didn't want to cave to Raiola's demands of him wanting a release clause in the contract etc, but he has one in his Dortmund contract.


All i'm seeing are people replying laughing or saying fake news, yet providing nothing to disprove what i'm saying

 

[tenpoless]

I rate it 7.5/10

 

[roonster09]

"Solskjaer was forced to turn to what he knows, since Ighalo played in Norway"

So Ole knows him since he played in Norway, at the time when Ole was still playing for ManUtd and then later appointed as reserves coach?

Can we also assume that players like Haaland, Odegaard, Kings knows every player playing in Norway league?

Only reason he was signed is, he is available due to delay in Chinese league starting and he has PL experience so shouldn't take time to adapt which is sort of important for a short term loan deal.

Also not sure how his agent is lining up money when he is paid 100K per week instead of 300K he earns in China as per few journalists.

 

[Zoo]

Bringing in Bruno was good but I feel it should have been done so that in was in place for January 1st. We lost four games this month and went into it knowing we had Injury issues but decided to feck around with the Bruno deal all month. More incompetency.

We did need a striker but again Ighalo really? We couldn’t find a young versatile forward to bring in? There’s one heading to West Ham now and another at Brentford. Again what are our scouts doing ? Why do they seemingly have no idea about these players? Why can’t they find anything not completely obvious ?

I watched Jarrod Bowen in the cup last week against Chelsea and thought he was pretty shite tbh. He might come good in the PL or may be another Jordan Rhodes.

I’m pleased that the club has stuck to it’s guns in deciding that they will only spend this January if top targets are available.

 

[Irwin99]

We got players in which is important but the business should have been done in the summer.

Not complaining, this business is far better than Chelsea have done and gives us a much better chance at top 4. Just would have been nice if the players had had more time to bed in. I still can't get over the 'we won't sign another striker because it would get in the way of Greenwood's progress' from the summer (He would have still played 20-30 games this season anyway i'm sure)

Looking forward to seeing the options this will give us. We are only six points off but Top 4 is a lot more realistic now, specially if Lampard is sulking

 

[MS4]

I feel way more comfortable now, seeing the club is actually doing something and focusing on the lacking parts

I feel another summer window with 2 good transfers and we back at the top. Playing up front and therefore securing Pogba would be huge

 

[Jezpeza]

not sure why any United fan would be laughing at him. I would have prefered Rondon but Ighalo's a solid short-term option too. Knows the league, United fan apparently, gives us necessary depth and won't kick a fuss when on the bench. No long-term repercussions either, just a stop-gap. No idea why people would laugh at this, we absolutely needed another striker and there aren't exactly tons of options around on January 31st. Spurs did nothing today, I very much prefer getting Ighalo in.

I dont get peoples attitude on it. Lots of people either wanted an injury prone relic Cavani on 600k a week for a 6 year contract or some sort of mega priced unrealistic target. It actually shows we are learning on the transfer and recruitmwnt front, we've made another mega signing, in a position we need, and then a no strings stop gap up front.

 

[Lebowski]

I know that transfers make most people a bit giddy with excitement and I don't want to piss on anyone's chips, but it doesn't feel like a successful window to me.

We signed a player who was desperate to join, whose club was openly flogging him to any club with money in the summer. But we somehow managed to drag it out with weeks of negotiations that seemed to have stymied our ability to get anything else done.

We missed out on our main target to Dortmund and went from signing one of the most promising young strikers in the world to participating in a desperate deadline day scramble for any striker who could kick a ball and would join us on loan just to get a body in.

I have nothing against the two players we brought in, and I hope they both hit the ground running. However, it seems like the same poor preparation, poor negotiation and spendthrift approach that has plagued most recent windows. I wasn't expecting all of the squad's problems to be solved this month, but the way the window has played out just makes it even more clear that all of the buzzwords from Ed about a 'new structure', 'clear plan and direction' etc are just PR nonsense.

 

[Jezpeza]

And he comes with an ego. I loved the guy and he was what we needed when we had him. But it's no shock to anyone paying attention that we were not going to get him again this time around.

Jeez, Zlatan is a class act, but he cant run anymore. I wonder if some people even watch us play sometimes

 

[crossy1686]

Say it's fake news then provide absolutely zero evidence that its fake news, typical.

Okay seeing as how you want to be a smart ass whilst providing zero evidence.

"Solskjaer was forced to turn to what he knows, since Ighalo played in Norway with Lyn, and his agent – Atta Aneke – has done deals with the manager’s representative Jim Solbakken. "

Atta Aneke, Solbakken and Ole have ties going all the way back to Norway, with his time at Molde and Cardiff as well. He was accused of bringing in a load of players, to both clubs, for his pal and business partner Solbakken, even if they weren't of the required quality.

As for Haaland, I mean it's already been well reported we didn't want to cave to Raiola's demands of him wanting a release clause in the contract etc, but he has one in his Dortmund contract.


All i'm seeing are people replying laughing or saying fake news, yet providing nothing to disprove what i'm saying

You're late to the party. Everything you've said has already been discussed and proven to be made up earlier in this thread and the Ighalo thread, way before you piped up with those Sun headlines, that's the reason why no one has bothered to provide you with evidence to the contrary.

Just go back and read what actual journalists with close links to the club reported on said deals.

Sportings chairman said they rejected Tottenham's bid in the summer, he wasn't available for a cheaper fee so you were wrong there for a start, they were looking for over €80m. And if you think bringing Inghalo in is small time, just be glad we didn't let Raiola and Haaland use us as a stepping stone before he popped off to Madrid in two seasons, you'd have really lost your shit over that if this has upset you.

Do you think a release clause of €50m and the promise of guaranteed starts is something Manchester United should be offering a kid from the Austrian league? If Dortmund want to let the world know they're a stepping stone club then that's on them, they'll always be in Bayern's shadow.

 

[Barnslig]

Say it's fake news then provide absolutely zero evidence that its fake news, typical.

Okay seeing as how you want to be a smart ass whilst providing zero evidence.

"Solskjaer was forced to turn to what he knows, since Ighalo played in Norway with Lyn, and his agent – Atta Aneke – has done deals with the manager’s representative Jim Solbakken. "

Atta Aneke, Solbakken and Ole have ties going all the way back to Norway, with his time at Molde and Cardiff as well. He was accused of bringing in a load of players, to both clubs, for his pal and business partner Solbakken, even if they weren't of the required quality.

As for Haaland, I mean it's already been well reported we didn't want to cave to Raiola's demands of him wanting a release clause in the contract etc, but he has one in his Dortmund contract.


All i'm seeing are people replying laughing or saying fake news, yet providing nothing to disprove what i'm saying

I'm not saying you're wrong or right, and I haven't read any of the previous posts, but all you've done is put quotation marks around some text, you're providing no evidence yourself - in this post.

 

[Alek M]

I am happy we got Bruno. Would like to know how much we saved for not getting him this summer. He seems like genuine guy that wants to elevate our team. Woody must be happy that he saved $10 mil or whatnot, but our season is in shambles. Maybe they thought Pogba will give it a go lot more.

Can somebody point me to an article what happend with Haaland that describes how he rejected us? Personally, I don't think his dad would have allowed him to play for us

Piatek?

Ighalo sems like another genuine man Utd player that Ole wants. This guy will run his socks off. He is quick, he has tricks, but will be able to do the simple things up front. Happy we got a striker, would have preferred we went for Timo Werner or even King would have been a better choice, but still happy we got something done today for a striker.

 

[roonster09]

We should have signed Bruno Fernandes in the summer, everyone knew what he was about and he would have been cheaper. Yes it's a good signing but come on

How he would have been cheaper? Sporting president said Spurs made 45million + 20 million bid and it was rejected.
"It was 'impossible' to retain Bruno Fernandes, but we did it. We prepared for his sale by putting a fair price on him, and we had bids, but the only serious offer was from Tottenham and that was €45 million (£40 million/$50 million) plus another €20m in bonuses for winning the Premier League and the Champions League. Those are difficult objectives, so we chose not to accept.

 

[Hawks2008]

To be honest I said I wanted to see us sign a midfielder and a strike and the club delivered so in a way I'm happy with how it went.

Ighalo is underwhelming for me though, not necessarily that he will be awful but rather that we still have not adequately replaced Lukaku. It was known he was going to be leaving even before the summer window, and that all that time since then we leave it to the last few hours to sign a cover player is disappointing. The lack of planning and foresight for what is the supposed biggest club in the world is lackluster, yeah we tried for Haaland but I feel we could have done a better job at finding a striker.

That said I am still happy with the business we did, just wish things were planned better. Hopefully they can hit the ground running which will go a long way to getting top 4 and maybe some silverware too.

 

[Velvet Revolver]

Roundup:

So we did a Maguire with Bruno. A player available for less money last summer (as was Maguire when Jose wanted him). We then proceeded to spend the whole window negotiating, only to end up paying the set price at the end of the window. With Maguire, we could have had him bed in much sooner, with Bruno we could have had him playing for all of January.

We tried to tempt Jude Bellingham to join from Birmingham. Rumoured to have offered 30m for the 16 year old. He didn’t fancy it.

We made an offer for Josh King - Bournemouth fighting relegation - how likely was it that they’d want to sell relatively cheap with no time to replace him?

Ole personally went to speak with Haaland, thinking he’d join us. Goes to Dortmund and scores loads of goals. Granted, if rumours of the deal are to be believed, the player is almost being rented from Raiola and his dad. If Ole tried to get around Raiola, that’s a plus.

We were rumoured to have scoped out a loan move for 20 year old Argentine striker Adolfo Gaich, who has a tiny €13.5m release clause.

Vague rumours around Grealish, Maddison, Cavani, Rakitic.

And we saw Rojo and Young leave, despite Ole saying he wanted to retain the players at the club as the squad was so stretched.

It is clear that our transfer “committee” is atrocious. It is also clear that we do not have a long-term approach in place, where we know our targets. A long-term plan includes more then 2-3 players that are unattainable in January because they are playing in the CL. This “long-termism” seems to be a relatively empty buzzword to buy more time for a club that has little ambition, and perhaps, not the money it once did, having squandered hundreds of millions on inflated fees, wages and managerial sackings.

That being said, we needed a striker and got one in. Mainly it’s good so we won’t destroy Martial and Greenwood.

And we needed a midfielder so we won’t play Matic and Fred until they get even too injured for Ole to play them.

I don’t mind us not spending huge sums in January, but I find it unacceptable that a club of this stature doesn’t seem prepared in the slightest.

I’d give this window a 5/10 given our needs, but I was expecting 0/10.

haters gonna hate

 

[Tarrou]

Considering my expectations I'm happy with what we got. Bruno is probably the best 10 we could've got in the window. Ighalo is better than nothing especially with a day to make something happen.

We're always scraping around at the end of the window though, which just goes to show how poorly we've planned acquisition and the squad - again.

 

[Man of Leisure]

Just good to see some positivity here for a change. Hope Bruno and Ighalo will be enough for us to grab 4th. We’re certainly better than we were a week ago which is promising.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Be in Wonderland about joining a team who finishes sixth/seventh? Come on

It's Manchester United.

 

[Yagami]

In terms of actual player quality I'm not into who we got - even for our current standards. We needed more bodies, though, so it's good in that sense.

I hope we're already thinking of who to buy next summer to fit into a planned system rather than our sporadic approach of a pick and mix.